The Rose Girl
by redskywalker29
Summary: Peace reigned over Remnant. How could it not? The Grimm were behind the Atlas Wall, and the worst criminal donated to charity every Wednesday. Still, this doesn't stop Ruby Rose with her plan on becoming a hero and not a moment too soon. A chance meeting with a frosty Heiress quickly sets into motion a series of events that threatens Remnant itself. Can a Rose rise to the occasion?
1. Fate Isn't Fun

**Chapter 1- Fate Isn't Fun**

Long before Yang or even Ruby's Dad, Taiyang, had been born, the salvation of all of Remnant swept her cloak around her shoulder and wandered into the fray. This mysterious stranger was no mere warrior, in fact, she was the first true huntress, and this historical figure would change the world forever.

Way back when warriors were using non-automatic pistols and swords without the ability to be used as guns, going had been tough. It wasn't like the occasional Grimm raid in modern days like the one a few months ago. Ruby had seen videos of the last outbreak where General Ironwood was easily able to dispatch of the few Beowolves that wriggled their way out of the Grimm Forest. While defending the Atlas wall was always a tough fight, it was nothing like the old times that Ruby grew up hearing about.

Everyone was raised with the stories of the Grimm before they were driven into the Grimm Forest and the Atlesian Walls were built to keep them pinned in. Before the walls, the thousands of monsters poised to overrun the remaining human cities battled with the outnumbered warriors. Ruby grew up with this history! Everyone grew up hearing these stories! It was a tale told far and wide, so why did she have to pay attention in history class?

"Turn your books to page eleven hundred and seventy-six class! Today we'll be talking about the last major Grimm war!

Professor Oobleck, sorry Dr. Oobleck, was an interesting fellow. Ruby had him for her history classes, and those days were always some of the weirdest Ruby had in her new school at Beacon. Dr. Oobleck sometimes came to class fully clothed like he was planning on exploring some ancient ruin and even had a hat to go with the outfit. Normally, Ruby would be excited to be in a class like his. He talked fast, but Ruby was faster. She could keep up with his rapid fire explanations if not for one very important thing.

History class was soooo boring...

Dr. Oobleck droned on and on about things like economics and politics of Vale instead of the cool stuff like warriors dive bombing beowolves while wearing super cool cloaks! Ruby couldn't help but tap her pencil against her notepad, adding more lines to the awesome doodle of a hooded warrior bisecting a beowolf with her awesome scythe that doubled as a sniper rifle. In Ruby's opinion, her time was being well spent. Dr. Oobleck did not seem to agree.

"Ms. Rose! As you seem to be fascinated with that pencil drawing of yours, why don't you tell the class the turning point during the last major Grimm incursion ?"

Oh biscuit. Ruby slowly raised her head with a wry smile that died a horrible death similar to the one she was about to undergo. Dr. Oobleck was standing a whole two feet away from her, so he could look down on her super cool drawing. Ruby hoped she didn't outwardly look as embarrassed as she felt inside. The other students in the class turned to her with smirks that betrayed their attitude. Like sharks circling a puppy, they leaned in and stared at Ruby. Her hand started to itch. Everyone was staring at her.

"Any day now Ms. Ruby! History waits for no one. It's already done!" He laughed at his joke, but he was the only one who did. The rest were too busy enjoying the way Ruby squirmed in place. Beady eyes wouldn't budge away from Ruby, making her want to disappear in a puff of smoke. Why couldn't a flurry of petals and flowers take her place?

Ruby took a deep breath, focusing her attention back at Dr. Oobleck. "The war with the Grimm shifted..." She knew this. She knew this. Everyone knew this. Ruby was thinking about it only a few seconds ago, but with everyone staring at her, it was hard to get the words out.

No. Ruby was better than this! She skipped ahead in school. Ruby was a genius! Kinda. Maybe. You know what? Despite what Yang said about her being special and everyone else saying that she was a five year old playing dress up, Ruby was average! Completely and utterly average! And an average girl could answer the question! It was time to bite the beowolf.

"The war shifted when the first semblance appeared! The Grim Reaper and famous Hunters and Huntresses like Ozma and Lord Schnee started turning the tide of the war with their use of semblances!"

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, by what Ruby wasn't expecting was the chorus of mocking laughter that greeted her statement.

"Man, I knew you were a kid, but you still believe in fairy tales?"

That was Cardin Winchester, the second biggest pain in Ruby's life. Ruby's eyes went wide as the rest of her class laughed at her. Their mocking of Ruby's answer just quickened her breath. If she could, Ruby would sink underneath her hoodie to hide, but the last time she did that, the class had mocked her for bringing a security blanket to school.

"B-books say that semblances were real! Everyone knows that!" Ruby protested, but it didn't help. The other students had seized upon an idea and wouldn't let it go. Ruy was at the center of attention once more. Any confidence she built up quickly shifted to maintaining her survival factor because Cardin wasn't done with his mockery.

"Sure kid, semblances are real. In baby books. For babies! What do you watch the Saturday morning cartoons too?"

Cardin Winchester, professional jerk, was the rudest student that Ruby ever had the punishment of meeting. Of course, it was her fault for skipping two whole years of school, but if she'd known about Cardin before she arrived at Beacon, she would have passed on the opportunity.

He was a stupid stupid bully, and Ruby wasn't going to take it anymore

"Then explain why hunters like St. Nicholas Schnee are still celebrated!"

Oh that really did it. Ruby covered her mouth with her hands, but the damage was already done. The entire room erupted into another round laughter.

"Oh, you still believe in holiday fairy tales. Make believe huntresses and hunters all you want kid." Cardin snarked over the sound of laughter in the small classroom. With only so many seats in such a small place, the words seemed to bounce off the walls like a hyperactive squirrel with anxiety. Ruby shifted in place.

Oh sure, she was childish. Why couldn't she mention that St. Nick was a figure known by all the major nations in various non-holiday capacities, or how all the stories about huntresses shared constants throughout every kingdom. Ruby didn't care. She was tired of being made fun of. Ruby pulled the hood of her cloak over her school uniform and sunk into her chair, even if it meant hearing another round of baby blanket comments from Cardin who smiled liked it was the Nondescript Holiday Season.

"Why don't you run away to your Mommy? Oh, that's right..."

_SLAM! _

A heavy textbook slammed into the desk directly in front of Cardin.

"That is enough from you Mr. Winchester." Oobleck's glasses dangled at the edge of his nose. The way that the light caught the reflection reminded Ruby of a spark about to light up a pile of kindling. Kinda like her sister before she broke Cardin's arms the year he tried to hit on her. Dr. Oobleck reminded Ruby of her sister right now, and that was honestly the most terrifying thing that she could think of.

"While her answer was somewhat vague, Ms. Rose does bring up some fascinating points about the myths and legends surrounding the last Grimm war! Stories like the four maidens or the princess in the ivory tower may seem childish, but records of similar stories are present in all major kingdoms. The correlation between real events and fairy tales is a fascinating line of study in the field!"

"Oh come on! There's no such thing as semblances! What a load of rubbish" Cardin thumbed his nose in a stupid-head kind of way, but his argument with Dr. Oobleck took the attention away from Ruby. Underneath her hood, Ruby smiled as the bully got his comeuppance. Now she just needed to keep her head above water and out of sight.

"Detention Mr. Cardinal. For improper conduct! I'll be seeing you after school."

Cardin didn't seem too concerned by the detention. In fact, he looked like he was about to argue with the teacher, but that sparkly glint on Dr. Oobleck's glasses seemed to flash again. For being a high school to college teacher (Beacon was weird), the doctor reminded Ruby a little too much of the Grimm that she saw in a cage once. Both beings had the same red glare in their eyes that promised a fight.

Cardin shut up.

The rest of the class period proceeded in a much more subdued fashion. Well actually, subdued was a word that didn't apply to Dr. Oobleck's style of talking at the speed of sound, but Ruby could let her guard down now that Cardin was too busy trying to not fail.

"_No such thing as semblances."_

Ruby stabbed her pencil in her doodle, striking a hole in the beautiful cloak that she spent so much time drawing in her picture of the huntress. This year was supposed to be different. Her social awkwardness was supposed to be set aside for cool new friends that Ruby could hang out with.

For a while, Ruby even thought this year would be the best of her life. Cardin didn't bother her during the first few weeks of school. He actually spent most his time picking on some blond transfer student for the past few weeks, so Ruby was able to escape attention quite easily. She was able to talk to her classmates without embarrassing herself, but Ruby supposed that it was like perching on the edge of a cliff. Once you fell off, there was no way to crawl back. You just followed your landing strategy.

The bell rang. Dr. Oobleck paused in mid-lecture, waving his hand to let the other students go running out before pulling Cardin to the side to talk about his detention. Ruby began to stack her books into a pile, taking care to remove her portrait of the beautiful Huntress from her notebook to a special place in her binder. The silver-eyes of the Huntresses seemed to stare into Ruby's soul. Later on she might fill out the cloak colors with a bright red, but right now, the cloak was left a hauntingly familiar white.

Ruby placed the portrait face down and out of sight, closing the binder with a resounding closing touch. By now, the other students had left the classroom to hang out with friends and skateboard, and okay, maybe Ruby didn't exactly know what those older kids did, but Ruby was probably too young to hang out with them anyway.

Ruby just wanted to be normal. In her everyday life, she wanted to be able to go out with friends or be allowed to babble incoherently about Huntresses like in the storybooks. Ruby read comics! She knew what teenagers like her were supposed to do, but Ruby probably mucked that up too. Being socially awkward never worked when you had something to hide...

"Ms. Rose? How are you adjusting to the new curriculum. I understand that you were advanced solely on your mathematics and engineering scores."

Ruby flinched. Dr. Oobleck was still sitting at his desk. He was probably there the whole time, and now he probably thought she was a big doofus...

"You might have noticed that I haven't called on you for the rest of the lesson Ms. Rose. I wanted to ask if you're having trouble adjusting to the curriculum."

Huh. When Ruby thought about it, Dr. Oobleck hadn't asked her anything after that disastrous first question. That was awfully nice of him which was part of the reason that Ruby sometimes tried to stay awake in class as opposed to Professor Port's story time class. Wait. Caught up in her thoughts as she was, Ruby realized she hadn't answered the question! Oobleck was still waiting patiently for her response.

"Nothing's troubling me! Just plain old me! With plain old knees!"

Oops. She said that out loud

To be a person like Dr. Oobleck, you had to be fast when you taught history up to the college level. Beacon's highly advanced and specialized high school/college system was known far and wide for a reason. Dr. Oobleck's lessons were fast and unforgiving. At least normally. Now though, Dr. Oobleck said nothing, tapping a pencil up and down on his desk. It was probably the slowest that Ruby had ever seen him. Like catching sight of an albino deer in the window as you drove past, you had to sit and stare at the marvel.

"History is a difficult subject to get into, I would imagine." Ruby said nothing. She just watched as Dr. Oobleck sighed, taking his mug of coffee and taking a quick drink.

"I think, it is possible to find answers for anything if you look long enough." Dr. Oobleck didn't seem to be just talking about history here, he sounded too tired and fed up for just some abstract subject but then again, Dr. Oobleck was weird like that. His eyes didn't budge from Ruby's.

"As a species, we've made mistakes. Menagerie, the Faunus Wars. It's easy to see why this comes crumbling down. Everyone else here has a history. I can't help but wonder what's yours."

"Nothing special! I'm just ordinary!" Ruby lied with great cunning and skill.

Oobleck stopped tapping his pencil against the desk, almost like he could detect Ruby's well hidden deception. For a second, quite a long second for both their standards, it was quiet. "I'll be here if you need academic or personal assistant, but right now, I think what you need is to look at yourself. No one hero did their job alone. I hope you remember that."

Ruby blinked, but Dr. Oobleck stood up and walked through the door, leaving Ruby to her own thoughts. Ruby felt a smile grow on her face. Even if it was the weirdest conversation Ruby ever had, she couldn't help but feel a little better about herself. Ruby left the empty classroom and walked outside the door of Beacon School.

"_You can make believe about huntresses all you want_." Cardin's words bounced back and forth in her mind like a pinball machine displaying a high score. The class probably thought that she was stupid because she thought class was boring. Because she liked cookies a little more than was healthy, she was regulated to the back of everyone's minds.

Well you know what? Ruby didn't have to take that! Because she knew what she was going to do with her life. Just before leaving the courtyard of the school, Ruby turned around. Her cloak, flustered in the wind behind her as she stared at the courtyard.

"I'll show you Cardin! Mark my words Beacon High, there will be a huntress!"

Over the top? Check because Ruby was swinging her arms around like a helicopter. Dramatic pose? The wind picked up at just the right time to send her cloak flying in the air. No one was around to hear her defiant proclamation, but Ruby let the words echo across the school yard and her own mind.

Ruby Rose would be a huntress. After all, she had a secret weapon. The time was now. She'd be an average person with an average knee during the day, but every hour after, a hero would rise up. Mark her words, Ruby Rose would become a huntress! Ruby took a deep breath, turned into the direction of her house, and started running.

With a flurry of red petals, like a cooling wind on the hottest days, her semblance took care of the rest.

* * *

The Vale concert hall was a wonder of engineering, based on the Atlesian design that was so popular in foreign cities. The concert hall was massive, even by the standards that Weiss was born and raised with. Pillars dotted the hallways, acting as decor more than any load bearing support. Banners with gold silk showed the elegance of the nobility and the wealthy. In the land of the fabulous, the fashionable, the ornate, Weiss Schnee stood out as the epitome of the day's function.

"Once again, Weiss Schnee brings an entire house to a standing ovation!"

"Reports today are showing that the estimated funding for the upcoming Vale Charity Ball will reach record high numbers."

"Lisa Lavender reporting on the concert that everyone's talking about! With hints that the charity ball will be an even bigger event, all eyes are on the Schnee that is said to be opening next month's event."

Throughout the concert hall, echoes of reporters bounded across the halls. The acoustics of the Vale Concert Hall were an architectural wonder that allowed even the most minute of sound to carry. The reporters and paparazzi covering the event, with their loud talking and professional grade cameras, were focusing on the one person star of this show. The one and only Weiss Schnee opened concerts in a manner that would be remembered for lifetimes.

You see, Weiss Schnee was perfect in every way. She was beautiful, rich, smart, rich, and hardworking. She was the top of her classes in Atlas. She was a genius, and a very important factor to remember was that she was rich. Weiss Schnee was all these things and more. Weiss Schnee was also trying to hide in a corner behind the biggest pillar.

"Recent Faunus Civil Right Protests have skyrocketed after recent labor laws strike down union protections."

In her corner, Weiss rubbed her arms against her shoulders to warm them. Each and every bloodseeking reporter echoed in the ornate concert hall, and it was all Weiss could do to reassure herself. It wasn't her fault. Weiss didn't make the laws of Atlas.

"The White Fang has attacked dozens of dust stores in their continued attacks against the SDC leading some to speculate about the ongoing guerilla war between these factions."

Weiss covered her ears. Rather undignified, but what was Weiss supposed to do about about about terrorism?

"Reports of unethical research on faunus have resurfaced. Is the SDC stepping into waters best left Grimm?" Lisa Lavender smiled at her joke, but Weis just tightened her fists.

All fake. Even if such allegations were true, what was Weiss supposed to do about it? Answer questions that she didn't know the answer to? Sometimes Weiss wished that she wasn't a Schnee. In the dark of the night, she wondered what it was like to live life without tiptoeing through a minefield. It might be nice to be normal, but then again, people who weren't Schnee's didn't have butlers.

"Klein! Klein!" Weiss called out from her corner, still standing as dignified as one could while trying to hide from a room of bloodthirsty sharks circling puppies.

"Yes Ms. Schnee? Are we ready to leave from the corner you've tucked yourself into?"

Weiss' eyebrow twitched, but Klein was one of two people that Weiss actually liked. A few levels of sass could be expected. "I think I'll be walking to the hotel today."

"Klein blinked, "Are you sure? Vale is different than Atlas."

True. Weiss was working in a city that she had no experience in. The Vale Charity Ball was an entire month away, but her father thought the best way to regain public sympathy was to transfer to a Vale school and spend time with the common people. How Weiss was expected to do that while staying at a five star hotel was anyone's guess.

Klein continued with his rather reasonable reasoning "Would it not be safer and more efficient to just drive home?"

It was a valid question, but Weiss had a simple answer. Weiss pointed to the limo she'd arrived at the concert in, causing Klein's eyes to shift towards that same direction. At that moment, it was surrounded by crowds of Paparazzi eager for blood and whatever stories they could print in their gossip rags. If Weiss went out there, she'd be swimming through a minefield.

Klein raised his eyebrows. "Understandable. Should I accompany you to the hotel on foot?"

That brought a small smile to her face, but Weiss shook her head. "If the car doesn't pull away, everyone will know what I did. I have a better idea." Because even if she was surrounded and in unfamiliar territory, there was one thing that the world couldn't take away from her. Whatever else happened, she was still Weiss Dust-dammed Schnee. Huddling next to Klein, Weiss whispered her perfect plan.

* * *

"And now to the latest news. The notorious thief Roman Torchwick once again evaded the authorities after robbing countless dust shops Vale. While General Ironwood of the Atlesian Army has stated that the utmost resources are being poured into his capture, recent breaches at the Atlesian Walls have forced the General to rescind that statement. More at nine."

The tail end of the news report was playing loud enough for Ruby to hear outside the entrance to her house. Before Ruby could even check to see if the door was open, her sister's voice called out

"Hey Rubes? You back from school yet? The door is unlocked."

Ruby opened the door and poked her head in. Yang was lying down on the couch with her feet spread out so she took up all the seats. Her leather jacket was draped on the back frame like the leather was a flag claiming the room as her sovereign territory. Yang's smile was like the cheshire cat in that it made Ruby shiver to her barest of bones.

"Heeeey Rubes. Don't you usually beat me home? I even walked! Seems kind of suspicious." Yang sounded a little too focused on how she said the words with the syllables being dragged out in a taunting drawl.

Ruby could already see where this was going. "Yang no."

Yang sat up "Hmmmm sounds like you have a boyfriend that I don't know about!"

"Yaaaang!"

"Fine fine." Yang shook her head, whipping her long and carefully maintained blonde locks flying out from behind her back. "Not a boytoy then. Was it some cute girlfriend?"

Ruby didn't deign to give a response. She just stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at Yang who kept smirking at "Yeah, yeah, I'm a meanie. For real though, you better not be dating anyone! Dad would freak out!" The way Yang said it made it sound like the kind of thing she'd do just to make Taiyang flip out.

"How is Dad anyway? Didn't he say he was going somewhere? I thought… Oh Zwei! Who's a good boy!" Ruby's question got caught off when Zwei, her precious dog, playfully headbutted Ruby's stomach. Zwei used his slobbery tongue to lick Ruby's face, putting both paws on her stomach to reach up.

Meanwhile, Yang twirled the cool bendy straw in her cup of juice she probably pretended was alcohol. "Dad's still at work. Both Signal and Beacon, for that matter, keep getting new transfer students."

Great. More people to ignore Ruby at school. But you know what? Ruby didn't need to worry about making friends or other impossible tasks like socialization! She had huntress training to do! The choice was easy because when faced with an impossible career told only in myths or the simple trial of making friends, Ruby knew which one was more difficult.

Ruby grabbed a juice box from the cupboard, sneaking a dog treat for Zwei to chew on while Ruby escaped. While Yang was busy putting her jacket back on, Ruby dashed into her super secret hideout. Technically, her hiding place was the garage, but only a mastermind would look and see anything other than a normal building! No one would ever be able to find her secret lair, especially after she bribed Yang to stop sneaking in and leaving notes on her work desk. (Cookies were fine though, Ruby knew her weaknesses).

Anyway, the garage lights were malfunctioning again which meant that the shadows played against the cars and other machinery in the room much like how sunlit branches would cast funny shapes onto the ground below. Ruby brushed her hand across the seat of Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee, passing by her Dad's red car that divided the garage into Yang's automobile stuff and Ruby's super secret workshop. Yang's side was filled to the brim with motorcycle accessories, scattered helmets, and the secret stash of magazines that Yang kept in one of her workbenches. Ruby discovered it when looking for a screwdriver and opened the secret magazine full of men and women…

Okay, Ruby still went red thinking about it, but those beautiful people were holding hands! What else was she supposed to do?

Anyhow, Yang's side of the garage was scandalously cool, but Ruby was proud to admit that her secret room was awesome! She owned an entire workbench that spanned the entire wall. On top of the sturdy wood was a collection of power tools that would make any engineer swoon. Bits of scrap metal gathered dust on the plywood bench whenever Ruby brought home new bags of the choicest metals. As far as her family knew, her hobby of tinkering ended with those scrap metals and little pieces of circuitry.

Of course, the truth was hidden underneath the workbench, disassembled into sexy parts for her pride and joy. Ruby pulled out reddish metal treated with firedust in little collapsible portions, placing the pieces in a line across the table. Her scythe, Crescent Rose, was the work of a lifetime. Each piece of metal needed to be hardened in the hottest dust fires before it would fit in her precious scythe. Each piece of metal was polished and smoothed down to fit within the interlocking gears.

Technically speaking, Crescent Rose was her engineering project for her graduate portfolio. As far as Beacon knew, it was simply a blueprint that Ruby was tinkering with to turn in by the time she would graduate for bigger colleges that she didn't want to think about right now. What the school didn't know was that she'd been borrowing the forges to build her masterpiece piece by piece, smuggling dust crystals to use as ammunition when the sniper portion was complete. Her scythe was beautiful built, perfectly balanced as all things should be, and practically perfect in every way save for one important distinction. That distinction was functionality of course, but Ruby was close to getting it to work. If she wanted to be a real huntress, she'd need to to get it working.

If she wanted to be a real huntress. Ruby collapsed into her chair, taking a long drink from the juice box she grabbed from the kitchen counter. Was Ruby being hasty? Wouldn't it be better to wait for when she was older and working with the military in an organized fashion?

Ruby snorted. Nah. She had a semblance, she learned amazing fighting skills from the time Uncle Qrow came over, and by the time she was done today, she'd finally finish her costume to hide her identity like in all of her superhero comics.

Ruby turned her attention to her side. Propped up against her Dad's car that he never used, a mannequin acted as both a design board and costume holder. While the mannequin was terrifying to find in the junkyard that one time she needed to find a few scraps to fix Taiyang's bike lock, Ruby quickly realized how helpful it was to have a test subject to shoot with her test weapons.

Today it served a different yet still essential purpose. All huntresses and hunters were supposed to have worn colorful outfits in the history books, so Ruby's costume was no exception to the rules. Of course, her information came from a children's cartoon show, but Huntresses were like superheroes. She deserved the costume. She had a semblance when nobody else had one! Ruby needed to protect her identity with her awesome costume.

And what a costume it was! Her dress and combat skirt were black and were clearly practical for the rigors of battle that Ruby anticipated. Her aura should keep the costume and herself safe from danger, but she put in a few sturdy pieces of fabric that could possibly turn away smaller blows. In addition to the practical uses of her combat skirt, the costume had a second effect. She looked really cool in it! At one point, Ruby had tried on heels to make her Huntress self super tall and imposing, but she quickly discovered that running in heels was impossible. Her combat boots, on the other hand, were awesome because she could kick people while running really fast!

The most important piece of her costume was the mask that was lying on the workbench. Ruby spent hours thinking of the best way to conceal her identity, and her mask seemed like the best idea! The whole costume was pulled together by the awesome red cloak hanging around Ruby's neck. Ruby wore her cloak everywhere, but she quickly figured out a way to incorporate it into her costume. If she wore her cloak inside out in the costume, the fabric was just different enough for her identity to remain secret. The fabric was a whole shade lighter!

Ruby's identity would be perfectly safe. All she needed to do was finish touching up her mask. For the next few minutes, that was the task that Ruby found herself absorbed into. She just needed to finish sewing her mask, so the rest of her new Huntress career could begin. Ruby was so close that she could taste success.

From her seat, a weight dropped on her lap. Ruby would have used her semblance to reflexively escape from harm if not for the fuzzy tail wagging and the way Zwei yipped a greeting. Zwei's eyes glanced up and down her costume and the mess of sewing needles that Ruby was somewhat incompetently sewing with.

"Bark!"

Ruby smirked, rubbing a hand up and down Zwei's fur. "Guess what buddy. We're ready." Her hand fell on the mask. The time was now. Ruby Rose had her costume and her secret identity ready. Now all she needed to figure out was how to be a Huntress. Easy stuff.

"Alright Zwei. The costume is up,so I think it's time."

The sniper part of her sniper-scythe was being worked on, so Crescent Rose would have to stay home for now. Still, Ruby had her costume ready. She watched Yang throw punches all the time. She was ready enough for one little outing. What's the worst that could happen without her weapon?

Ruby was ready to go out into the world. She'd save helpless civilians and battle the wicked forces of Grimm. Of course, her entire fantasy came crashing down when Ruby remembered that the last time a Grimm had been seen in a city was apparently her Aunt Raven's bachelorette party before she disappeared.

"Well Zwei. We know there's no Grimm to stop, so I think we're burnt out."

"Bark."

Ruby leaned back against her chair, closing her eyes in thought. It was pretty awesome that there were no Grimm this side of the Atlesian Wall, but it didn't leave much room for practicing to be a huntress. What else could a huntress do to train? Maybe join the military, but Ruby would need to finish her schooling before she'd be able to attend.

Zwei shifted in Ruby's lap. The dog was too energetic to sit still for long, and Ruby couldn't help but identify with him. Ruby needed to move around. Dash around the city with her semblance. Maybe she'd think of how to deal with her whole Huntress problem while moving around. She might even find some kind of crime to solve!

"The matters decided!" Ruby grinned at Zwei, holding him up by his belly to look him in the eye. "I'm going to go out and see if I can find an answer."

The day was looking up. Soon evil would be shaking in its boots thanks to… the Red Hood!

No. Probably copyrighted.

Umm, Scarlet Pimpernel? Nah, that sounded lame and in no way a reference to any work of literature.

"Huh." Ruby said as she realized a very big flaw in her plan. "What should my name be?"

"Bark."

At least it was something to think about while Ruby put her costume on and went out into the city for her first real outing as a huntress. Maybe the name would come to her later. Even without a clear direction, one thing was for sure. This was Ruby Rose's first step into becoming a huntress.

This city didn't know how saved it was about to be.

* * *

About ten minutes of planning later, Weiss could tell that Klein was nervous. He was walking up to the horde of reporters mobbing the Schnee family limousine after all, but the family butler didn't outwardly show a sign of fear. Only years of working with the man could reveal his hesitation. For the rest of the world, a stern expression on his face and upright posture dared anyone to interfere with his task.

But even without Weiss at his side to spark the reporter's interest, it was in the paparazzi's nature to seek out blood.

"Is Ms. Schnee available for comment?"

"What do you have to say about recent allegations of misconduct in Schnee dust mines?"

"How does your income compare to Faunus in the Schnee Mines?"

Klein said nothing, entering the car with a cool head despite the fact he was surrounded on all sides. He remained silent, only opening the door for himself and sitting down. The crowd surged forward anyway as Klein started the car, their question bouncing off the windows as Klein began to drive away. The crowd's confusion was almost tangible seeing that Weiss never actually boarded the car, but their thoughts were clearly placed in front of them when Klein began to pull up to a side entrance.

Funny how the pack of sharks quickly turned to a helpless school of fish that could only follow Klein. He'd wait there for the next twenty minutes which Weiss regretted but considered a valiant sacrifice seeing that it left Weiss free to slip away.

Of course during all of this she'd been on the opposite side of the building. How else would she be able to get away? Klein would distract the crowd who'd be waiting for a Schnee that would never pull up. It was a simple bait and switch, but the simplest plans were best. Klein performed his role flawlessly, and now, it was time for Weiss' perfect getaway.

Weiss tightened the jacket that she'd asked Klein to grab for her. The white coat covered her elegant dress enough to blend in with the masses. Weiss couldn't help the smile that formed on her face as she walked right past the entrance of the concert hall and slipped into the heart of Vale itself.

Vale. As cities went, Weiss had technically seen better. The upper echelon of Atlas was considered the most advanced in the world. Vale, on the other hand, had abandoned buildings dotting the city blocks once you slipped past the richer area near the concert hall. Her hotel was on the other end of town which was a foolish decision considering most her business would be kept within the area of the Concert hall. Perhaps her father simply hated the generic hotel district for obvious reasons. Perhaps her father wanted Weiss to walk through the poorer areas as part of his master PR plan. She would be seen traveling through areas she'd never normally pass through. It was a stupid plan, but one that he might make her undertake.

Weiss took a breath, pulling out her scroll, and went to work on what she really took this walk for.

Yes, with all standards considered, Upper Atlas was by far the better city. Still Vale had a sort of charm that Weiss would grudgingly accept as competent. Food stalls litterted the sidewalks, and the food may have been greasy, the smiles on passerby's faces were anything but. Weiss couldn't see herself living in these grimy conditions, but she could see a day where she might want to walk around and see the city in its bustling prime.

No, Vale itself wasn't the reason why Weiss felt so cold and nervous inside. The scenery and environment was in fact a warming fireplace in her heart, but nothing could try to melt the ice she felt while trying to talk to her father.

"_Why Beacon?"_

Her message, one that she spent so long deleting, fine-tuning, and thinking about ended up being short. Perhaps shorter than appropriate, but Weiss was too frazzled to speak as eloquently as her original plan called. Her message was short and direct. Weiss would ask her father what his real plans were, and she'd never look back.

Weiss took a breath. Beacon was a good school. It was the kind of place she would have loved to go. In fact, this wasn't hyperbole. Weiss filled out all the necessary paperwork for the transfer before the school year. She had Klein deliver the message to the illustrious Professor Ozpin. She should have been in Beacon instead of her Atlesian school. She should have been in Vale enjoying her freedom from her father instead of scurrying around the streets doing his PR work.

Weiss curled her fingers together when she saw the streetlights in front of her turned red, but a quick detour through one of the side-streets would fix that delay. No, that wasn't the source of her anger.

Her paperwork never reached Professor Ozpin. The transfer never occurred. Klein was above suspicion of course, but Weiss knew there were dozens of suspects in Beacon or outside of it that could easily have been bribed to do her father's dirty work. Weiss had been forced to go to Atlas Academy and her plans for freedom came crashing down.

But now she would be attending Beacon. Her first day was tomorrow even. It was all of Weiss's hopes on a silver platter which was why Weiss knew there was some angle she wasn't aware of. Jacques Schnee would never listen to her which was why she was left sending two word messages to her father. When her father would get back to her, she'd know why he was giving her everything she ever wanted. There was a shoe that was about to be dropped and Weiss wouldn't be the one underneath it.

She was Weiss Schnee, and she wasn't about to let anyone get in her way!

"Well. Well. Well. What do we have here?"

In her wandering, Weiss made one critical flaw. With her tunneled-eye vision on the future, Weiss made the mistake of forgetting the now. Because Weiss wasn't perfect, not yet at least. Weiss made one grave error.

Weiss forgot to look where she was walking.

A well dressed man, with a black suit and matching hat, was the one who called out to Weiss. In the best of circumstances, his words would have made Weiss cautious. This was hardly the best of circumstances. Weiss had wandered through a back alleyway while trying to write her message. Oh, and the man in front of her was holding a red machete. Couldn't forget that part.

Weiss's chilled blood turned to ice when she noticed that behind the man, similarly dressed gentlemen appeared from the shadows. Weiss turned her head around to the entrance, her ponytail swinging behind her back. Two more thugs in similar clothing moved to block away

"Why hello there Ms. Schnee is it. Lost, are we? Don't worry. We've been waiting for an opportunity like this."

Her fingers curled around her hands, but she didn't let any fear show in her gaze. It seemed like things just became complicated, but even with their advantage, these thugs were forgetting one thing. She was Weiss Schnee, and she wasn't going to go down without a fight.

* * *

**Woho New Story! Will probably be updated whenever, but I plan on updating once every two weeks.**

**Oh and here is a fun addition to the reference to Mary Poppins that really didn't fit above.**

* * *

**Omake:**

Her scythe was perfectly balanced as all things should be and practically perfect in every way. With a snap of her fingers, she'd destroy half the Grimm with her cosmic power. Her task would finally be complete...

Ruby blinked. Maybe she shouldn't have watched all those movies before going to bed. Destroy half the Grimm? That was frankly ridiculous.

Ruby was going to kill them all.


	2. Dramatic Meetings

**Chapter 2- Dramatic Meetings**

Batman made it look easy.

Seriously, Ruby had been through dozens of side-alleyways and streets, but the most exciting thing to happen was when Zwei started following her out of the house. Of course, Zwei was amazing and loyal, but it didn't help when Ruby was trying to find some kind of terrible crime to foil using her huntress skills. Now she had to keep an eye on her dog too!

Matters weren't helped by the fact that her neighborhood was more than quiet. It was practically silent! The only event she was able to find was the time a cat got stuck up a tree, but Ruby didn't even get to save it because the cat scampered down the moment it noticed Zwei. Then, Ruby tried chasing it down to pick up the cat and find its owner, but the stupid cat outran her! Ruby's semblance was super-speed! That was her thing! And the cat outran her by ducking into a hole too small to crawl into!

Some start to Ruby becoming a powerful huntress. She couldn't even save a cat right.

"And now I have to carry you Zwei. Look at this. This is your fault!" Ruby whispered into Zwei's cute face, holding him in her arms so he wouldn't get lost in the streets. Zwei obviously didn't say anything back, but he did lick Ruby's face nonstop as Ruby patted down her awesome Huntress costume to check for loose cloth or any accessories that might have been knocked aside.

Her hands came up empty. At least her suit was holding together. She even got complimented on her costume by an old lady she walked past! Of course, the old lady was probably confused about Ruby being a real huntress, but Ruby took the compliment to heart anyway.

"Maybe we should move along Zwei."

"Bark."

Really, there was nothing exciting happening in the neighborhood. Which was good because Ruby lived in this area most of the time, but when you were looking for problems to solve, peace and quiet did not exactly convey itself to huntress training.

Ruby could try going deeper into the city, but a little voice held her back. Ruby and Yang were barely used to living this far into the city in the first place. Their home in Patch was too far away for their dad's work though, which meant that they needed to move close enough for him to… whatever his day job was. Teacher maybe?

Didn't matter. What mattered was that Ruby was stalling. She was a huntress! She shouldn't be scared of going deeper into the city that could easily lead her into getting lost! Ruby explored the island of Patch all the time when trying to practice with her semblance. How different could a major metropolitan area be?

"Hold on tight Zwei." Ruby steeled her voice, grabbing Zwei so he wouldn't go flying. Zwei started wagging his tongue in excitement. Ruby's semblance was really cool after all. She could move super fast! She could disappear into a flurry of roses which was also really cool when she wasn't trying to carry her dog with her.

Look. Ruby Rose's semblance was amazing by virtue of existence. It wasn't like anyone else even had aura to protect themselves. Ruby, on the other hand, was pretty much indestructible. She once spent an entire evening accidentally running into trees, but she came out without a scratch. Clearly, her aura could deflect anything truly hostile. The only problem was that Ruby didn't exactly come with an instruction manual of her amazing powers.

Was this how the first Huntress felt? The Grim Reaper must have had to learn how to use her powers too. Did she spend long hours running into walls like the one weekend that Ruby tried to get an understanding of her rose teleporting thing? Did she need to get used to unwieldy turning speeds? After all, as awesome as pure speed was, Ruby needed to learn how to turn on a dime if she didn't want to hit walls when she accelerated.

"Well that's why we're here Zwei. I'm going to learn to be the bestest huntress!"

Even though Zwei probably didn't understand what Ruby was talking about, he probably could understand Ruby's tone of voice. He put his paw on her heart and barked once. If Ruby could speak dog, it would probably come across as something super inspiring and wise. Of course, a sneaking suspicion in the back of her mind told her that Zwei was probably just hungry…

Didn't matter! Ruby was taking it as inspiration. "Hold on buddy! Let's rev it up!"

Crickets followed that proclamation. Yeah, that catchphrase really didn't work. Zwei turned his head on his side, still sticking his tongue out. Ruby winced, knowing that her cheeks were going red in embarrassment.

"Ummm. Gotta go fast? Let's kick it into overdrive?"

Zwei stared back at her, making no move to show support for any of Ruby's killer catchphrases she borrowed from the television. Look, it was a work in progress, alright!

"Nevermind. Let's just go Zwei."

In practically an instant, the world turned to molasses. Alright, maybe Ruby wasn't that fast. She could dash at high speeds. The world temporarily turned to molasses every time Ruby dashed forward like she was the main character of a videogame abusing the dodge button to leap across the map. Maybe speedster speeds like the comics would come later, but for now, Ruby was pretty happy with her semblance.

In no time at all, Ruby was dashing past the long streets heading towards the bigger city. Of course, Ruby would probably get lost trying to find her way back, but for now, Ruby extended her hand to trace against walls as she sped past buildings and stores. The smile on her face was just as ecstatic as Zwei's. Her dog was sticking his tongue out as Ruby carried him faster than any car could have in traffic.

If Ruby started paying attention, she might have noticed the startled expressions of those passersby and pedestrians she sped her way past. Her dashing technique made it so that her features were far too blurred for anyone to see, but the combination of her cloak and new costume added to the credibility of several existing rumors of a local cryptid too fast for cameras to track. The rumor mill-fed legends of the Red flash, the Crimson demon, and the walking soda advertisement would all gain more substance from this point on, but in terms of story relevance, they didn't matter.

(Ruby would spend several hours investigating the city for signs of these monsters later on, all while feeding rumors of their existence through her semblance. While it would be a hilarious self-fulfilling cycle that Ruby would never quite catch wind off, the story relevance was again immaterial).

In what seemed like no time at all, Ruby hit the Generic Warehouse district of Vale. Using her semblance always made her lose track of time because of all the awesomeness, but Ruby could see that the sun was starting to sink down.

Here at the Generic Warehouse district was as good a place as any to look for crime. Ruby stopped, her combat boots skidding on the pavement of the street. Her speed slowed as a scraping noise filled the air, drawing the eyes of passersby to the spot where Ruby was failing to cut her speed down. A nearby wall quickly became larger and larger, but stopping might still have been possible if she didn't accidentally stumble on a rock.

"Oh. Macaroons." She shut her eyes.

Ruby tripped, spinning out of control and hitting the wall with a solid CRACK. The kind of sound much like a baseball bat striking a ball, or in this case, a brick wall striking a young superheroine in the face. That was one problem that Ruby always ran into. Stopping that is.

"Owww."

"Bark."

Zwei wriggled out of Ruby's arms, perfectly safe from the crash thanks to the way she spun out of control. Ruby opened her eyes too and tried not to think of the headache she now had. The good news was that her aura was amazing and already patching up her injuries.

Ruby didn't noticed the concerned citizens who started pointing at the crash site, but she would have been ecstatic to realize that her amazing silk mask was doing its job in concealing her identity. Well the mask and the cloud of dust and rocks she kicked up when trying to stop. That was the major factor. Ruby didn't notice it as her attention soon turned to being a super Huntress extraordinaire.

"We're here Zwei! I can smell it!'

Ahh the Generic Warehouse district. Ruby could still smell the sea from the Generic Docks district nearby which made it doubly sure that she'd be able to find tons of criminal to stop. The rumor mill in Vale always had good stories about this place. Like the gang of people in expensive suits or the association of people with spider tattoos. Even that new guy, the gentleman thief, was supposed to be hiding somewhere in this area. These streets were perfect! And… delicious?

Ruby sniffed. She could smell the scent of hot dogs drifting in on the seabreeze. Zwei could smell hot dogs too because he started wandering towards the main street. The whole place was lit up with food stands that only served to remind Ruby that she didn't have a wallet or cash on her. Sure, she ate a snack earlier, but now she was getting hungry.

"Bark?" Zwei obviously didn't phrase his whining bark like a question, but Ruby would like to think he would have. He began to trot forward.

"Bad Zwei. We're working. We can eat later."

Zwei whined but circled back to Ruby's heels. Good. She had her dog, so now, she could go be a huntress. Now she just needed a criminal to stop, but for all the criminality this Generic Warehouse district was said to have, Ruby knew she faced a terrible task. It could take hours to find a real crime. She'd need hours of detective work before-

"Aghhhhhhhhhhh!"

Ruby's head snapped up as a girly scream sounded through the area, but she failed in suppressing the smile that grew on her face.

"This is it Zwei!"

Ruby flung out her hand, letting her cloak catch the breeze so that it flowed behind her. This was it. Time for her big break. Ruby Rose was no longer her average-knees self, for a true huntress appeared. Whoever it was that screamed was about to be so saved!

* * *

"Aghhhhhhhhhhh!"

For a single moment, a single second even, Weiss Schnee winced in sympathy. Of course, the sympathy flew out the window when she remembered that she was being kidnapped by a group of criminals. When one considered that angle, Weiss felt much better about kneeing one of her attackers in the groin.

"W-why does it h-ic- hurt so much?"

The thug that tried to grab her arm, a man dressed in the same posh suit as the rest of the gang, groaned into the pavement. His hands were covering his waist after Weiss made her… objection to his approach. His compatriots who had been approaching now stood still in shock.

Weiss paid the fallen thug no further mind as her mind went wheeling in place. These thugs, all men, were well-dressed. The suits were a reasonably high quality brand, the kind Weiss might recognize at a formal function. Weiss wasn't too familiar with the kind of gangs in Vale, and Atlas had little to no criminal elements to speak of which meant her frame of reference was off. Gangs were more for Vacuo or Menagerie. Still, the number of organizations that went around in this kind of finery couldn't be too high. It should be child's play to find the culprit.

Of course, that information only helped if Weiss managed to escape.

"Schnee brat. You're going to pay for that." The main speaker, the apparent leader of the thugs, smirked.

Oh, dust. The man thought he was funny...

The situation was simple. Actually it wasn't, but Weiss was a Schnee and could think under pressure. Therefore, the situation was simple. Weiss was confronted on both sides of the alleyway. On one side, four men in suits and wielding machetes were scowling at her. The other side of the alleyway was blocked off by a single man wearing the same kind of tailored suit.

Planning was essential for her escape. While there were one or two metal ladders attached to windows above her, they would take too much time to climb up. Weiss would need to overwhelm the man behind her and slip into the main street. Once free from the constraints of the alleyway, she'd be able to call out for the policing force of Vale. Her plan was simple to conceive but difficult to implement.

Difficult for anyone but a Schnee. Her name came with numerous benefits she could take advantage of. Overwhelming wealth wasn't useful in this situation, in fact presumably being the cause of her attack, but there was another aspect of her family that Weiss could utilize. These men probably saw her as a shelterted and spoiled heiress. The man groaning in pain on the ground next to her, in their minds, must be just an unwelcome fluke.

"Come on princess. You wouldn't want us to get angry." The thug must have thought his line was clever because he smirked. The other thugs laughed at the line, meandering forward. Clearly, she was a helpless widdle princess, too powerless to stop those awful criminals. Little did Weiss need to tell them that she was no sheltered princess. She was a damn Queen.

Weiss curled her hand into a fist into a perfect form for punching to minimize damage to her hand. Like it or not, Weiss wasn't going down to a bunch of ill-mannered thugs.

Now, the story of Weiss' life could have gone many ways. Ups and downs and tosses all around. What happened next was a once in a lifetime occurrence of fate. Weiss would have been fine by herself, but that really wasn't the change in fortune that shaped her world. Even in her old age, Weiss knew that what happened next shaped her life forever. Her world seemed to freeze as a loud voice called out a challenge.

"Attention criminals!"

Everything in Weiss's life changed after the girl in the red hood wandered in.

For a moment, Weiss couldn't move. She couldn't breathe because the stranger in front of her was nothing less than breathtaking. The wind seemed to pick up at just the right moment, or else how could Weiss explain the flurry of rose petals following the girl's dramatic declaration. The roses seemed to circle around the mysterious stranger like they were a natural manifestation of her cloak, dancing around in the breeze like red fairies.

The Rose Girl, for what else could Weiss term the character, made her declaration wholeheartedly final. Even those thugs that were harassing her seemed to pause in their steps as the light hit the silver cross on her chest, reflecting it across the alleyway. The Rose Girl was like an ancient fairy from the old stories. She was charismatic, ethereal and completely dangerous, and the very world seemed to freeze as it waited for the Champion's next move.

"Bark! Bark! "

And like that the moment was ruined.

"Not now, I'm trying to monologue!" The Rose Girl tried to shush the dog that was yipping at her heels, a mangy mutt who snarled at the thugs. The Rose Girl, distracted by the dog, lost any sense of wonder that her entrance built up. The four thugs that blocked Weiss' way forward turned their attention to the new stranger.

"Look kid. You better scram and let the grown ups handle this." The leader of the thugs spoke up. He motioned with his machete in an obnoxiously stupid movement, miming a cutting motion.

The Rose Girl, to put it frankly, seemed unintimidated.

"No, It is you who better scram! You fiendish… fiend! Your villainous ways end here!"

Weiss took in a deep breath. That stupid statement. Weiss' eyebrow twitched. What kind of moron pretended to play superhero then deliver lines like they were on a television set? What sort of dolt would confront actual criminals like that? Whatever the case, Weiss wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste. The thug's eyes were all on the Rose Girl which meant that they weren't on Weiss. Rather unprofessional when trying to kidnap someone, but it was their mistake to make.

If there was one rule in life, it was that no one should take their eyes away from a Schnee.

"Alright, umm does anyone want to surrender now?"

The four thugs in front of her and the one thug behind her all stared in incredulity at the Rose Girl even as the stranger began to expand on her tirade against their "villainous viles." For a moment, Weiss wondered what the guys would do until she realized that they were too busy being parlyzed… with laughter.

"Hehehehe. Looks like we've got a real joker."

"Bet you anything the costume's homemade."

"Nah, I'm pretty sure she's just plagiarizing that one Pumpkin Pete commercial."

The last comment was from the thug blocking the exit whose attention was entirely encapsulated by the Rose Girl's foolish actions. It was a golden opportunity, and Weiss was more than capable of taking advantage of it.

"Surrender criminals! For I am the power at night that wakes the sleeping… criminal guys! And girls. I''l stop criminal guys and girls too! Wait, where did those machetes come from…"

"Aghhhhhh!"

While the crowd was distracted, Weiss lunged forward like it was just another fencing match. However, instead of an unsharpened blade striking against a tinfoil suit, Weiss herself was the weapon. Weiss slammed into the thug blocking her way, stomping her foot down on his boots. Now in an ordinary situation, the heavier set man would have been able to shrug it off, but the thug's attention was entirely on the Rose Girl. The sudden pain distracted him just enough for him to let go of his weapon. And for what Weiss did next? Well, it was uncouth but utterly effective...

Weiss kneed a thug in the groin for the second time that day.

"Du-dust. Why?"

With that move, the stalemate was broken. The leader of the thugs sprung into action. "Get them! Both of them!" Weiss began to run, grabbing the fallen machete as she ran towards the exit. Weiss would have continued running until she hit safety if not for the singular rose petal that drifted by on the seabreeze. The petal whirled past which made her glance behind her shoulder.

The Rose Girl was still standing still as two of the thugs approached her, her dog growling in more defiance than anything the girl seemed to muster...

"What are you doing dolt?" Weiss called out as the Rose Girl swept her cloak behind her back like a cape, creating a wasteful and unnecessary distraction that might just end up hurting her.

Weiss looked towards the exit. She could start running and be free. Even get the police force in to arrest the thugs. But leaving the girl behind put a sour taste in her mouth. A Schnee did not flee from danger like a coward. The machette in her hands weighed more like a bludgeoning bat that required upper-body strength that Weiss was sorely lacking in, but two of the thugs were about to reach the stupid, doltish, moronic girl who still wouldn't stop monaloguing. Weiss turned around, holding up up weapon in a stance more suited for her fencing matches, but it was the best she could do without learning the appropriate theory and coursework.

This was a stupid plan, and the evidence was clear that she'd never be able to make it to the Rose Girl in time. The best she could do was run and not look back. Or at least, that was what Weiss would do if she wasn't stubborn.

"Run you dolt! Do something!"

Weiss started running back. Two of the thugs blocked her way, but she could try and distract the lot of them. She wouldn't run away because who would she be if she left behind that utterly stupid Rose Girl?

The two thugs approaching Weiss grinned as she ran towards them, probably rejoicing in the fact that Weiss was an idiot, but her eyes were only on the two thugs approaching the Rose Girl. The closest one raised his machete, but even with her dog growling in defiance, the Rose Girl Would! Not! Move!

Unit she did move, and it was at that moment that the world changed for Weiss Schnee.

With a gust of wind, the Rose Girl disappeared. As in one moment she was there, and the next, a swirl of roses had taken her place. Even her dog seemed to freeze, cutting off his growl to blink incessantly. The thugs approaching her were equally confused. "Where did she-"

Weiss froze because the flurry of roses crossed the alley like some kind of magic act, sending petals into the faces of the thugs to obscure their vision. The storm of petals passed over the now blinded thugs, crossing the alley and appearing behind the two thugs that were about to reach Weiss.

"Flying Axe-Kick Go!"

Then, another impossibility for the day. The Rose Girl appeared out of the flowers and kicked one of the thugs in the face.

"Yeah! Take that!" The Rose Girl flipped herself off the thug's face like a springboard to land on her feet, almost as if she was daring physics to call her into question. Weiss' hands felt limp, the piece of metal in her hand weighing like an anvil because that was impossible wasn't it? The Rose Girl crossed the alley in a storm of petals only to kick the thug in the face. It was incredible, impossible, and unfortunately quite ineffective.

"How the dust did you do that?" The thug's only reaction was to wipe away spittle from where the Rose Girl's boot hit him in the face and blink. He seemed more confused than anything, lowering the weapon in favor of just staring at the spot where the Rose Girl appeared.

The other thugs seemed equally stunned, frozen in place for who knows how long. Perhaps the Rose Girl had another part to her plan. Weiss looked back to her saviour, who despite the awkward start, was perhaps more competent and powerful than anything Weiss might have dreamed off.

"Ummm so that didn't hurt you? At all? Well... no hard feelings right?"

It was official. They both were doomed.

The period of being stunned ended when the closest thug cut forward with his machete, and the only reason the distracted Rose Girl wasn't nursing a cut the size of her torso was because Weiss threw herself forward at the last minute and knocked both of them to the ground.

They both hit the ground, and if it wasn't currently an emergency, Weiss might have blushed by the fact that she landed right on top of her. Blushed kinda like how the Rose Girl's face went red when their eyes met.

"Wow… You're super pretty..."

"Watch out before you get the both of us killed!" Weiss snapped, but she felt her cheeks go red at the comment, a gentle heat that she might have welcomed if they weren't in such a compromising situation. Also danger. That too. There were still four thugs approaching. Perhaps the only reason the two weren't being harassed was because they were as equally stunned as Weiss. Who wouldn't be stunned by the impossibility of the girl that Weiss was currently laying on top of.

"She just turned into a bunch of freaking roses!" The closet thug cried out.

"Like a real cartoon. Magical girl maybe?" That comment was from behind the two closest to Weiss.

"I don't care what just happened! She kicked me in the face! Get both of them!" The lead thug snarled. He was the one was kicked. Now, he looked too angry to be stopped by whatever nonsense the Rose Girl would pull out nowhere. At this point, Weiss fully expected a whole menagerie of useless powers that would mildly annoy their attackers into submission.

They were so dead.

A hand fell onto Weiss' shoulder. Thinking it was one of the thugs she took care of earlier, Weiss thrust forward with her machete. All too late did she see that the two thugs she attacked earlier were still on the ground and groaning in pain which meant there be only one person so stupid to place a hand on her shoulder in the middle of a crisis.

The Rose Girl's eyes widened as she disappeared once again, exploding into a petal of roses that caused the attacking thugs to once again halt in their tracks in the face of inexplicable power.

"Dust! Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry Princess! Please put the machete down- "

Weiss blinked at the nickname, but the Rose Girl continued, speaking at a rate that would impress even the famous historian Dr. Oobleck.

"Look. We're in trouble here, so I need you to listen carefully to my plan because you might get hurt, and I'm so sorry because I'm the superhero, but I left my collapsible scythe-sniper at home and…"

Weiss glanced behind her. The thugs started to shake off their confusion which meant they had ten seconds to think of something. Weiss placed a hand on the Rose Girl's shoulders, and with a voice that would impress even her older sister, commanded, "Plan. Now."

Weiss' only partner in this debacle pointed at the cluster of thugs and grinned. "I'm going to go really fast and disorient the gaggle! You're going to need to hold onto something!"

Ignoring the fact that the plan amounted to the girl running really fast using her unexplained powers, Weiss couldn't help but wince at the dangers present in that action. The logistics involved with such a feat. The plan was stuppid, asine, moronic, and the only thing that they had.

"Do it!"

The Rose Girl nodded. The red-dyed tips of her hair shook with the action. Then in an instant, a gust of wind blew through the alley. No, not a gust of wind, the shockwave from the Rose Girl suddenly accelerating towards the cluster of thugs. Weiss stumbled in place before throwing her arms around the metal staircase nearby.

The Rose Girl's physics breaking powers obviously had something to do with speed. That or it involved roses for some reason. Whatever the specifics, the effects were dangerous The Rose Girl appeared behind the the closet thug and swung with an easily telegraphed punch, but that punch was quickly overshadowed by her real technique of running away. Almost a second after disappearing, the girl would reappear in a different spot, striking at the thugs with an ineffective punch or kick before disappearing again with a much more effective shockwave.

Was she accelerating and decelerating? Was she teleporting in a way that created a shockwave each time she reappeared? Weiss' brain moved as fast as the Rose Girl's attacks, but she felt powerless to move in the sudden storm of petals that accompanied every move, petals which circled the thugs and obscured their vision.

Something had to give, and it certainly wasn't the girl who looked like she was racing against a group of turtles. Weiss held onto the wall, bracing herself as the Rose Girl grabbed one of the thug's weapons and sent it flying in the wind. Eventually, the thugs sunk to the ground, unable to keep up with the sheer speed that the girl produced every second. The buffeting of petals and ineffective kicks stacked onto one another into a storm no human could possibly match.

For once, things were looking good. Perhaps that's why the Rose Girl tripped on a loose rock.

"Watch out!"

One thug still stood despite the swirl of roses. The man sporting a bruise in the shape of boot raised the machete in his hands. His eyes were wide with fear, but he seized upon the one chance he had to turn the tables. Weiss wasn't close enough to help. She could only watch as the Rose Girl threw up her arms...

And the true saviour of the day appeared.

Unnoticed throughout the fighting, the Rose Girl's dog stumbled to his feet. No, it wasn't a dog. Weiss could see his face. He was a m-mutt. A mangy little… puppy. A cute widdle puppy with the most adorable eyes and…

Weiss blinked as the puppy growled. Perhaps sensing the hostile intent from the thug attacking his master like a good boy he was, the corgi jumped at the man. Sharp teeth met the thug's arms right before his master could be harmed.

The thug screamed as teeth sunk into his expensive suit. He swung his hand around in a circle, managing to knock the dog aside. Despite the brief respite, the only thing it served was to anger the little corgi. The dog's teeth were black with the thread from the thug's suit. His fur was unruffled which was incredible seeing as he was still standing after the shockwaves brought down three other grown men. He was also the cutest thing that Weiss had ever seen.

"Stupid d-dog..." The thug, managed to gasp out before the Rose Girl took a flying leap and slammed both of her boots into his face at incredible speed. Needless to say, the man went down.

Weiss let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding, but her heart was still beating like a drum. Her adrenaline wasn't helped by the sight of roses swirling around the spot where the mysterious girl picked herself up from the ground. The Rose Girl went back to beaming that cocky little smile. Back to an almost ethereal air of power. Like the feeling one got in their chest when seeing a butterfly or finding a secret garden of flowers in the cold of Atlas. She seemed much like a flower, small and dainty despite the fact she broke a man's jaw only a few seconds ago.

The girl didn't seem to care as she knelt down next to the corgi and scooped him up into a fierce hug."Good job Zwei! That was so brave! You know what? Why don't you become my sidekick?"

Weiss untangled herself from the metal staircase. Her hair was a mess, her jacket and dress was torn, and pride broken, but Weiss was alive. She wasn't being kidnapped. It was a win in her books, but one entirely based on the actions of one particular stranger.

"Did you bite the nasty man?

This was her savior? A young girl who couldn't focus on a dangerous situation? Who postured around in a suit that looked like it was thrown together by a bargain bin shopper? Worse was that she clearly had incredible control over her powers or whatever that blistering speed was. Weiss curled her trembling hands together.

"And what, pray tell, was that?"

The Rose Girl looked up, blinking like a deer caught in the headlights. In her hands, the adorable corgi bobbed his head up and down. Clearly, he was the brains of the partnership because he was so cute with the remains of the thug's arm on his little teeth...

"Th-thanks citizen. I mean, I had it under control, but you certainly h-helped me out a little." the Rose Girl rubbed the back of her head, still beaming that cocky smile that only fell when Weiss stomped right up to her.

"He almost hit you with a machete. I don't care what research facility you robbed, you could have gotten both of us killed!"

The Rose Girl blinked, perhaps because Weiss' proximity. Weiss was right next to her now and perfectly able to see the intricate details of the Rose Girl's costume. Like the way half the fabric was a mismatch of different fabrics sewn hazardously together. Certainly not Kevlar armor that could stand up to assault. Yet, this girl walked up to a gang of criminals without the slightest hint of fear.

Or caution for that matter.

"Well I thought my kick would knock him over but- hey! I didn't rob anything!" The Rose Girl's tone shifted into a pure defensive cry as she waved her hands up and down. Of course, she could very well be lying to cover herself.

"Explain the roses!" Weiss snapped, pointing her finger around the alley to the literal storm of petals still circling the girl. "And the speed. And the fact that your legs should be broken by suddenly accelerating and hitting those thugs!"

Each word brought Weiss a little closer to the Rose Girl, her finger wagging as she ranted, but the Rose Girl only cocked her head to the side and grinned. "Oh, that's just my semblance!"

Weiss froze. It was a fair reaction too because a semblance? An actual semblance? Impossible. They weren't real. Fairy Tales had more substance. Weiss should know as she'd had to listen to her father talked about how the Schnee line dated back into legend. Of course, he didn't believe in semblances either, but he took pride in the Schnee's role in the legend.

It was, put simply, nonsense.

Then Weiss looked to her surroundings.

The alleyway was a mess. Garbage bags blown by the wind lay scattered on the ground. The metal staircases, including the one that Weiss had used to anchor herself, were loosened by the sudden burst of wind. What was the weight those trashy constructions could handle? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't human. Someone with a semblance wouldn't be just an ordinary human. They'd be superhuman.

The Rose Girl moved her hair from her eyes, fixing that strands that were blown loose by the sudden acceleration. She had short hair, so there wasn't much to adjust. "Man that could have been bad. At least you're safe right… woah. Your hair is really pretty- I mean nice and brushed!"

It was the second time the girl had said that. Now, Weiss was used to hearing things like that all the time. She was Weiss Schnee for crying out loud, but this time, it hit home just a little too hard. Maybe it was because Weiss was still standing next to the girl. Perhaps that ethereal first impression was gone, but the Rose Girl was still very cute. The silly red strands of hair on that tiny head shook every time she swayed in the breeze. The Rose Girl's eyes were a striking silver that seemed to pierce into Weiss' very soul.

The Rose Girl was undeniably cute. Weiss could safely admit that. She even saved Weiss' life. Weiss wasn't in danger now, so who cared if she went a little red?

It was very picturesque. Almost romantic if one took a step back, Sure, Weiss was doing fine for herself, but the Rose Girl saved her the trouble of escaping. Like a storybook tale, the dashing hero swooped in to save the beautiful Queen. Weiss's mouth felt dry. The whole scene was like that of the start of a love story which was probably why it was immediately ruined.

"Help? I think you broke my face." A thug groaned into the ground only a few feet away from where the two were standing. Weiss shook her head as she cast her gaze around the piles of formerly armed thugs now laying on the ground. Her head was clearly muddled. Adrenaline simply made her unwilling to think, kinda like how the Rose Girl handled this whole situation.

"You were reckless."

Weiss crossed her arms and stared. The Rose Girl immediately bristled.

"I saved the day!"

"You could have made things worse by your jumping around!"

"Like you were doing so well by yourself!"

Like talking to a brick wall. A stubborn and doltish brick wall. Weiss curled her fingers in. "I had it handled! Need I remind you, I disabled two of my attackers!"

Said two thugs groaned into the dirt, too tired to protest Weiss' self defense.

The Rose Girl crossed her arms to mimic Weiss' stance. "You needed help. And I helped you. I would never regret that." From her lips, it was a bold declaration.

"That's just nonsense-" Weiss cut off. Weiss wasn't wrong, being a perfect Schnee and all that, but she could have moments where she knew her family's propaganda was all that. Propaganda.

The Rose Girl might have acted foolishly, but she did act. No one else came in to help Weiss. She might have been able to escape by herself, but what if something happens? The fact that the Rose Girl acted at all should outweigh any other factor.

"Th-thank you." Weiss muttered to the ground in a voice too quiet to hear.

"What was that Princess?" huffed the Rose Girl, still crossing her arms in irritation.

"I said thank you!" Weiss spat out. Then she breathed, immediately calming her voice. "No one else happened to help. I shouldn't take my anger out on you for my mistake. So thank you."

"Oh." An eloquent response indeed.

The Rose Girl's dog padded his little paws up to Weiss. Perhaps it was improper, but she was already exhausted. Weiss knelt down next to the puppy and rubbed his little ears that waggled in the breeze. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched as the Rose Girl began to roll the thugs on their sides and started taking off their shoes of all things.

Weiss almost asked what the girl was planning when the Rose Girl blinked in and out of existence once more, brushing a soft gust of petals across Weiss' face.

When the Rose Girl reappeared, the thugs were all facing the wall with their hands tied up by their own shoelaces. Shoelaces didn't work as handcuffs of course, but given the fact that most of those thugs didn't look like they could move, it would probably turn out alright.

"Bark." Weiss let her beating heart still as she rubbed the corgi's ears. As her heart calmed down though, her mind started to race forward. The Rose Girl claimed to have a semblance. Was she born with it? Did she have the aura that was said to be unlocked by the hunters of legend? Caught up in her thoughts, Weiss almost missed the Rose Girl's next question.

"Ummm so where do you live?"

Everything about this day came grinding to a halt.

Did the Rose Girl not know? She was Weiss Schnee. Arrogant it may be, half of Vale knew who she was, but did she make the exception? No, being recognized didn't matter because Weiss was still wrapping her head around the fact this girl was using her semblance to tie shoelaces together.

"I mean, you might get robbed again, but if I walk you home, you can be protected! The Generic Warehouse district is pretty dangerous after all!"

Generic Warehouse…?

Weiss shook her head. The word choice didn't matter. The Rose Girl didn't know her. Perhaps because Weiss' hair turned into a nest after the wind ripped past her. Perhaps because her dress was torn to shreds. No matter. Weiss might as well answer the question.

"I'm from Atlas, but I was staying at the hotel near..."

"Got it! The non-descript hotel district!"

Weiss opened her mouth to say no, that wasn't the hotel she was staying at, but the Rose Girl had already grabbed her hand. Weiss began to put together what was happening, but it was a little too late. She tried to yell out anyway, but her breath was stolen from out under her lungs by a flash of rosy petals. Traveling at such high speeds made her head spin as a whole collage of lights and colors assaulted her sentences. By the time Weiss had found her voice, she was already sent stumbling next to the entrance of a cheap-looking building.

"There you go! Now be safe and watch out for criminals!"

"Wait!" But it was too late. The Rose Girl already turned around and disappeared in a flash of petals.

Unbelievable. She left Weiss in the entrance of a hotel that wasn't hers thank you very much. A hotel where she would have to call Klein from or risk walking home and getting mugged again. Five seconds. That's all it would have taken to tell the Rose Girl that she dropped her in front of the wrong building.

As if to mock Weiss' anger, A single rose petal drifted in the wind before landing at her feet.

Weiss's eye twitched, and that's the story of how Weiss' fate was shaped forever.

* * *

**You know the scene in the foodfight where Ruby sends all the trash flying? I remember. Oh, and here's another extra bit.**

**Omake:**

It was a slow day in the Jr. Detectives Agency. Or at least it was.

"Umm... Sun?"

"Yeah Neptune?"

"Do you remember arresting these guys?"

Sun blinked. Five men tied up with their own shoe-laces were dropped in front of the agency. Coincidentally, these five men were wanted criminals that the detectives had never been able to find. Now delivered to their door like they were a pizza.

Oh no...

He'd have to do paperwork now. So much paperwork...

Sun's false mustache slipped from his face as his cup of coffee dropped from his hands and shattered against the floor.

Neptune just sighed. "I'm taking that as a no then."


	3. Sleepless Nights

**Chapter 3- Sleepless Nights**

"And then I was like Hiya! And Slash-sling!"

Ruby chopped forward with her free hand, miming the awesome kung-fu move she used to kick those thugs' collective butts. Next to her, Zwei nodded, though his attention was more attached to the hot-dog in Ruby's hand. His own was long eaten. The two were sitting on a bench next to one of the many outdoor food stalls as it was a good reward to a long day. Dropping off all those thugs at the police station with a signed note took a little longer than expected, but it was well worth it because Ruby found five lien on the sidewalk. Clearly it was a sign that things were on the rise.

"We kicked their butts! And saved that cute girl to…" Ruby signed. Sure, the pretty lady had been pretty angry, but Ruby would chalk it down to the stress of being robbed. She even changed tunes and thanked Ruby for her amazing huntresses skills! Being a huntress didn't seem so bad after all. This is the best start she could have asked for.

"Yip! Bark!" Zwei clearly only cared about the uneaten hot-dog, but Ruby was too busy monologuing to notice.

"You were awesome too Zwei!" Ruby rubbed his head with the hand not holding a hot-dog which obviously caused the poor puppy some distress. "You were so brave." Or vicious depending on your perspective on things. Some of those teeth marks that Zwei left behind were huge! Speaking of teeth marks, Zwei tried to bite the moving hot-dog but missed. Ruby giggled before cramming the rest of her meal into her mouth.

"So what convention were you going to?" The worker at the nearby hot-dog stall waved to Ruby as he wiped down the counter at his booth. His conversation was born not of any specific interest but just a desire to pass the time. Good thing Ruby was great at that!

"I'm not going to a convention! I'm a Huntress!"

The hot-dog seller raised an eyebrow, shaking his head in good humor. "Just remember to be careful on getting home. It's not easy when it's dark." He wiped clean the counter one last time before closing the metal grate.

Ruby nodded up and down. Getting home before it was dark would probably be best, but how hard could it be? She had a speed semblance after all! Ruby began to whistle as the street lamps turned on, lighting up the dark of the night with it's dust powered electricity.

Wait.

Nighttime?

Reality promptly ensued.

"Yang is going to kill us."

"Bark." Zwei barked in wholehearted agreement. Or he was angry that Ruby ate his hot-dog. Three guesses to what Zwei really cared about.

Ruby sighed, blowing a puff of air at a strand of her hair. It was completely dark, and trying to navigate through a city at high speeds would be almost impossible. She'd have to stop to look around for directions, and when you could move fast enough to generate blasts of wind, stopping to check the map felt all the more frustrating. Oh yeah. She could also scratch out the Yang being mad at them part. Mad was sneaking a few more cookies or using Yang's shampoo bottle when she wasn't looking. For disappearing and going into the city? Yang was just going to kill Ruby.

But that was only if she found out...

"Let's go Zwei!"

And with that the crimson speedster, the huntress of hope, and other adjective filled words disappeared with a flash of roses. Coincidentally, the burst of wind began blowing the petals along the sea breeze to paths unknown, but that bit of trivia mattered more to a certain young who was handling things with all the grace and propriety that her station demanded.

* * *

"Miss. Schnee? Are you... Feeling well?"

Was someone talking to her? Weiss' head pounded in different directions as her thoughts splintered into confusing little shards. Half-baked plots fought against common logic and reason. Weiss couldn't think straight, so she was left staring at the chandelier in her hotel room. One of the dust-powered lamps kept flickering on and off every few seconds. Poor form for the kind of hotel Weiss was staying at. Almost as poor of form as that Rose Girl.

"Miss. Schnee?

Suppose the Rose Girl was lying. What would her underlying motivation be? To integrate herself into Weiss' good graces? No, it wasn't likely. She didn't seem to recognize Weiss and completely failed in making any kind of good impression with her silly antics. The Rose Girl could be lying to protect herself, but her behavior would be completely different if she needed to hide something. What sort of person stole secret technology and used it to play dress-up? The alternative was that the Rose Girl was telling the truth. She was an immature girl that was gifted with powers the kind humanity always dreamed off, and she was using it to live out the fantasy of being a huntress in the worst way possible.

Weiss didn't know which was worse.

"Weiss?"

Klein's use of her first name finally shook Weiss out of her paralyzed stupor. The fancy silk covering her chair rippled when Weiss sat up from the expensive piece of furniture she'd been laying on for the past few minutes. Luckily, only Klein was here to see her breach of propriety. Weiss still shivered as she stood up, stretching out her arms to shake away the exhaustion.

"Sorry Klein. My mind was elsewhere."

Klein put a hand on Weiss' shoulder in a display of affection that surpassed anything her father ever gave to her. "Get some rest. Are you sure you don't want to inform the authorities about this evening's incident?"

Hahahaha. Klein was quite the comedian. Weiss shook her head and tried to keep the scowl on her face from showing. "Of course not! What would I even say? A magical girl waved her wand and took care of the problem?"

Klein wriggled his mustache, his mouth twitching upwards into a smirk. "From what you've told me, she ran extremely fast."

"Klein…" Sheer audacity aside, Weiss knew Klein was only trying to calm her down. Few people were the sort to immediately believe her outlandish story about thugs and girls who could move faster than the blistering wind. Weiss confessed everything to him after calling his scroll from the generic hotel district-

She meant the Torchlight Hotel! Stupid dolt! Even her naming conventions were rubbing off on Weiss! Such stupidity could not be allowed to live, not after Weiss was forced to wait in a lobby with only a jacket to hide her concert dress. Being forced to endure the questioning stares of passersby as she waited out in the corner for Klein to extract himself from the ball. All her hardships could be traced to one thoughtless mistake.

The Rose Girl needed to answer for her crimes. What Weiss wouldn't give to pull back the girl's hood and lean in with her clustered breath close enough to tickle both their skin…

"Miss. Schnee? You're dozing off again."

That stupid, doltish, cute girl in the red hood! Weiss knew there was a very good reason why she was haunting her thoughts, and it had nothing to do with the implications of semblances existing. Even if the results were a little less than perfect, Weiss kept going back to how easily the Rose Girl had tried to help. No hesitation unless you counted the monologuing kind. The girl reminded Weiss of a flowery fairy tale.

""_Wow… You're super pretty…"_

"Stupid dolt! Moron! Imbecile!"

Weiss' headache throbbed, but with the anger burning up in her chest, it took all she could do to not bash her head against the wall. Because Weiss Schnee did not get crushes on people she's barely met. Weiss Schnee did not get crushes at all. Everyone else loved her. Everyone complimented her with insincere comments meant to provoke her family name! She was Weiss Schnee, so there was no sincerity. It was an undeniable truth of the world.

_Your hair is really pretty- I mean nice and brushed!"_

Unconsciously, she ran her hand through her ponytail. The asymmetrical strands she made sure to brush carefully each morning before setting it outrageous hairstyles her father would never get the chance to complain about. The wind blew all the strands into a wild mess, but the Rose Girl gave her that compliment afterward, didn't she?

Weiss felt her cheeks go red, but enough was enough. Weiss wouldn't embarrass herself any longer. It was clearly affecting her thoughts. "I won't be swayed by such stupidity."

"Am I to assume those compliments were meant for someone else?" Klein's mustache twitched. If Weiss wasn't red before, she certainly would have turned into a tomato after Klein's comment. She'd forgotten her butler was there, and now, his eyes seemed to glean with just a little more humor than Weiss was currently able to deal with.

Hoping to play it off, Weiss crossed her arms in a very stern and serious stance. "I'm going to bed Klein. If anything comes up, leave it until tomorrow."

"Of course Miss Schnee." Klein stopped his head in a bow, but as Weiss moved to gracefully collapse in her bed, Klein flashed his hand up. His upright posture remained the same as ever, but something seemed a little more closed off now. Was he hunching a little? No, it couldn't be.

"Weiss, I would have told you earlier, but given the circumstances, I thought it best to wait."

Weiss … didn't sound good. The humor in Klein's comment from before dissipated like a gust of wind scattering pollen. "What is it?"

Klein's eye contact slipped away to the polished floors made of diamond or whatever the fancy element the builders decided to decorate the penthouse with. Weiss really didn't care about the details, far too focused on Klein's frown.

"Your father called me a few hours ago."

Well. That was certainly something. Weiss couldn't help but glance towards her own scroll lying on one of the tea tables near the chair she'd been laying down on. The scroll had no messages on it. No snide comments from Whitley, no official notices of encouragement from Winter, and certainly no messages from her father. Yes, Weiss had a bad feeling about this.

"What did he want with me?"

Weiss' suspicions were only confirmed by the way Klein shifted in place, like he was standing on a pile of red hot coals he couldn't leap away from. The polished floor reflected the sag in his face, the pure exhaustion in his stance.

"Your father... didn't want to talk to you. He only wished to inform me to prepare your bags and gather supplies for your first day of Beacon tomorrow."

Tick, Tock. The Scroll laying on the glass coffee table counted forward. .

Weiss' eyes narrowed. Klein's posture was still closed off, and his story seemed to lack any details of anything of note. Jacques Schnee would not call for something as simple as making sure Weiss was ready for Beacon. More than that, the need for secrecy made no sense unless Klein was hiding something from his testimony

No, hiding something was the wrong word. After all, Klein willingly offered up this tidbit. He was not hiding but omitting something from his story which meant that Klein couldn't talk about the real reason why her father called. He couldn't say it outloud, or quite possibly, Klein couldn't say it here.

Were they being watched? It didn't seem too far-fetched. Security became important after the White Fang began outright raiding Schnee Dust trains. Weiss' walk from the concert hall was probably the furthest away from scrutiny than anything else she'd do in Vale. Of course, she was mugged when she stepped away from security, so the cameras weren't necessarily bad.

Or were they? The facts were thus.

Klein could not speak out loud, and her father had no wish to say anything to Weiss. Any response Weiss might make would be recorded as well which honestly made Weiss glad that she confided the whole story of this evening to Klein from the safety of their car. Klein would have swept for bugs and acted accordingly. Her father could only spy so many places. Jacques Schnee wanted something that he wouldn't let Klein talk about without fear of punishment. But what could it be?

Weiss frowned. It was a lot to think about on the best of days, and Weiss still ached from the whole ordeal with the Rose Girl.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention Klein." Weiss bowed her head in thanks, even if Klein just looked hurt by the action. Perhaps he thought Weiss misunderstood, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The fact that Klein was willing to go so far above his duty, even against the wishes of his own employer, just reinforced the fact that he was someone to trust. Loyalty to a paycheck could only go so far. Klein worked for Mr. Schnee, but for Weiss, he worked with her. The distinction was important.

"If my father asks, I'll make it to Beacon tomorrow."

After all, she did want to go to her school of choice. She wanted to go so badly that she felt giddy even thinking about it. This was her freedom all laid out with a silk rope wrapped around the bait. Weiss would go forward, grab her freedom, and be caught by the glittering cage that came crashing down. A trap she would never have seen coming.

Well Weiss Schnee wasn't the only one who could plan, and, the best way to avoid a trap was to spring it. Her father could play all the games she wanted. He may be the King in this little game of chess, but the king's power wasn't absolute. He couldn't move as much as he might like, where other pieces had the freedom to move across the entire board in a single turn. And need Weiss remind herself, she was a dust damn Queen.

These were the thoughts that carried Weiss past the glamorous furnishings inside her bejeweled cage and straight into her bedroom. Weiss, with all her years of etiquette training screaming murder, threw herself face first onto the mattress. If Weiss could get away with it, she would have screamed.

"Goodnight Klein!" Weiss mumbled face first to a pillow. Klein wouldn't hear, but it made her feel better about herself. Weiss couldn't move her limbs without feeling like she'd been hit by a truck. What a day. Giving a concert on its own would have exhausted Weiss, but to have been ambushed on the way home was a step too far. That didn't even begin to account for the Rose Girl and her shenanigans. Weiss was right to feel tired.

Huh. Strange though. Why did she think ambushed? It was a random mugging. Could have happened to anyone.

Only... facedown in bed did Weiss realize something she should have realized hours ago. What had the leading thug said? Before they tried to approach? Weiss tried to think back.

"_Why hello there! Miss Schnee was it? We've been waiting for an opportunity like this_."

Funny. Back before her thoughts were entirely consumed by that troublesome Rose Girl, Weiss would have sworn what the thug said was a coincidence. The kind of opening one-liner one said after watching many Spruce Willis films. A tacky attempt at intimidation. Only, something didn't make sense.

Why were those thugs waiting in an alleyway anyway?

Weiss jerked up.

It couldn't be. Weiss didn't plan on walking through the alleyways at all! It was a spontaneous decision! Because the way things were sounding, those men weren't looking for any old opportunity to get rich. They were looking for her.

Weiss didn't get much sleep after that.

* * *

"Shhhhhhh."

Ruby opened the side-door to the garage, ever-so careful in order to avoid making a creaking noise. Her caution didn't go unrewarded. Sneaking past her Dad's car and reaching the other side of the garage was easier than she feared.

"We're safe." Ruby sighed, walking into the kitchen. Zwei darted forward like he was the one with a speed semblance instead of Ruby. Ruby took the time to reach into the cabinet to grab a cookie from her stash before she went to slip past the front room and into her bed. A few more feet until she was in bed. Ruby crossed the room towards the stairs...

"So Rubes. Where do you think you're going?"

Ruby's heart sank to the bottom of the floor at that sound. Unlike when Ruby first left that afternoon, the chairs in the living room were rearranged. The couch was moved to the side to make room for a central, spinning chair that always sat upstairs. Fine. Good even. Left some more room for watching the television. It wouldn't be such a terrifying sight if not for the fact that Yang was spinning in it. The mischievous grin on her sister's face spelled nothing but woe and despair.

"Yang! Guess I was spending too much time in the garage again!"

Ruby lied like a liar, but Yang seemed to buy it. She was nodding her head along like this was an everyday situation, even if it was anything but. Ruby wasn't stupid. Yang's jacket was on her, looking just a little dirtier than usual. Covered in dust like she'd been walking through somewhere that hadn't been swept up for years. Yang couldn't have been wherever she was for too long though. The television was turned off, but the remote was right next to Yang's hand. Did she turn it off when she heard Ruby come in? Was she waiting for Ruby to show?

"Zwei has dirt on his paws."

Ruby glanced forward. Zwei was sitting on the couch, dirty paws and all. Ruby looked up and winced. "Ummm, I let him out of the house."

Yang nodded, clearly buying her wonderful lie. Her hair bobbed up and down with the movement, acting much like a lantern before a firefly. Ruby couldn't help but stare and hope she didn't look too suspicious.

Yang then pointed her hand at a plate at the table, and when Ruby was thrown off guard by the action, she struck. "You know I went out and checked on you in the garage? I even brought you a bribe. A plate of cookies!"

A whole plate of cookies? That was awesome...wait a moment.

"Ummmmmm. I was… fishing? For parts! In the trash! Our trash, not the dumpyard! Because I've been home all day."

"I know. I checked outside. And in the garage too." Oh. That explained the dust. Their dad kept saying he would clean out the garage, but Ruby knew he never would. That's why she stored Crescent Rose in there.

But how long had Yang looked for her? Something in the way her eyes gleamed told Ruby it wasn't a pretty answer.

Yang leaned forward in her chair. "So, tell me Ruby. Why would you be sneaking out?" That grin was still beaming, but her eyes reminded her of that of a beowolves bloodthirsty glare. Wait, Ruby already used that comparison today, hadn't she? Oh well, it was accurate.

"I went fishing. As in real life fishing?" Ruby lied, fully knowing that the only harbor in Vale was too far away from their house to be a reasonable excuse. Well, if you couldn't move fast with a semblance, but trying to explain that would be just another headache. A little bit ironic that even if Ruby told the truth about what she'd been doing, Yang would never believe her.

Yeah, ironic, but Ruby didn't like irony…

Her choice of lie didn't seem to matter anyhow as Yang seemed to develop selective hearing in the span of seconds. "Sneaking out for parties are you? Just like your big sister!"

Oh, Ruby could feel her cheeks go red, but it was an excuse! A reasonable excuse! Chance like this didn't fall out of trees. "Umm yes! I went to a party! Dozens of them! I didn't want to tell you because you'd be... jealous?"

Yang's smile fell for a moment which was weird because she should have been buying Ruby's story. Zwei looked up from his spot on the couch when Yang stood up, stretching out her arms like she was about to go on a casual run.

But Yang wasn't smiling.

"Ruby. You know you can tell me things right?"

Ruby blinked. Because that wasn't the response she was waiting for. "Of course I know that." Her tone went soft. What was Yang thinking? Staring at Ruby like she had something to say but couldn't force it out. Yang had no filter. So what was different now? Ruby almost didn't notice it when Yang stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You haven't been talking about school lately."

Ruby blinked again, but in indignation."I tell you plenty of stuff!" Like her projects in the Engineering department. Or her courses in Engineering. Or the funny time that Professor Port tripped on a fallen notebook and fell over which, to be fair, was something Yang knew seeing that they shared that class. What could it be then? Was Yang angry that Ruby was in her year now? No, it couldn't be. Well, whatever it was, there was no way it could be that significant.

"Doc Oobleck called."

Oh. Ruby's smile fell. Yang wasn't angry at her. That wasn't her disappointed face at all! It was numerous times worse.

"Oobleck told me that you're being harassed in class!" Yang was wearing her burn their house down face. The kind that ended up with Yang breaking into a bar and fistfighting management. Ruby needed damage control and stat.

"I'm not being bullied!" The thing with Yang was that she was completely and utterly willing to kneecap anyone that got in the way, and Ruby couldn't bear to live with the fact that she might one day need to stop a criminal with yellow hair and a burning smile. Besides, with all things considered, Ruby wasn't actually being bullied. "It's really not that bad."

What could be bad at having no friends? At being made fun of all day in and out? No it couldn't be bullying. Ruby wasn't being bullied because she was a Huntress. She could break Cardin's arm in three different ways. She just fought off several armed thugs! She wasn't being bullied. She was letting Cardin win because that was what the bigger person did. Well, what the short and cloak wearing girl did. Same thing.

"Look Rubes. Do you want me to come over and give whoever it is a lesson? I know a gal. We could break their legs."

Yang's was still holding onto Ruby's shoulder. Perhaps squeezing her shoulder was meant to be comforting, but all Ruby could think of was that Yang might get into real trouble one of these days. Briefly, Ruby was very thankful that Dr. Ooblek hasn't said any names. Perhaps he too realized that Yang might literally rip Cardin's arms off. Yang didn't need to have a semblance like Ruby to be intimidating.

"I don't want you to do anything!"

"Why?"

Ruby bit her tongue. Because that was the real question wasn't it? Ignoring the fact that Yang would be dancing with expulsion, Ruby should be able to take care of her own problems! Ruby finally decided on a lie Yang might buy. "Look. How am I going to get any work done if you're constantly breaking people's noses? I'll never be able to finish Crescent Rose!"

Yang sighed which was weird because she should be buying Ruby's lie by now. "Just, let me know if something's going on. If you need help. I'm not a heavyweight boxing champ for nothing." Yang's eyes didn't leave Ruby's. Even if the conversation was over now, something told Ruby that this wasn't the end of it. Ruby started dragging her way up the stairs and to her room.

Stupid Yang with her sisterly concern. Stupid Oobleck, sorry, Doctor Oobleck, with his emotional support system. How was she supposed to be a huntress if they kept caring?

Yeah, even to herself it sound ridiculous. Ruby was a great liar, and that meant that she could lie to herself above all else. Ruby made her way to her room. At her heels, Zwei padded along, but he seemed to sense Ruby's sour mood because he stayed quiet enough for Ruby to brood in all her superhero glory.

What was she supposed to do? Ruby was supposed to be strong. She literally kicked some thugs in the face only a few hours ago, but the thought of confronting Cardin just made her freeze.

Huntresses shouldn't freeze, at least that was what the comics said. They should be larger than life heroes that did good. They had cool costumes and always knew what to say no matter the situation. All she had was a makeshift cosplay and a piece of metal, a case of social anxiety complete with zero friends. All Ruby had in her closet was a white cloak belonging to the one person she'd never be able to bring back home.

Ruby collapsed into her bed.

"I'm going to be a huntress." Ruby whispered to herself. Zwei made a whining sound, curling himself up into a ball next to her, but his comfort couldn't fix her fears. Ruby shouldn't freeze when people made fun of her. What kind of superhero would she be if she did that? How stupid was she?

Ruby's closet opened, swinging open by the wind or a ghost. Giving the fact that Ruby kept a certain white cloak in there, the answer could have been both. See Summer would know what to do here. She always knew what to do. Her dad was great, but even he wasn't able to keep it together like how her mom always knew what to say. In fact, if Ruby thought about it, she was pretty sure that her mom did say something wise along those lines. What could it be?

Ruby closed her eyes and tried to think, but nothing ever came to mind. With her eyes closed, all Ruby could do was think about how comfy the bed was. How exhausted she felt...

* * *

"_What am I doing wrong Mom? I keep messing up!"_

_Ruby tugged on her mother's cloak. The white fabric seemed to circle around the child like it was a blanket. Ruby might even have thought the fabric alive if Summer's hands didn't poke out of the armholes to rub Ruby's hair. _

"_Ruby, a hero isn't someone who's perfect all the time. Haven't you seen your Uncle Qrow get stuck in the door too many times for that?" _

_Ruby giggled, slumping into the bed. She asked about how to make cookies after all, but her mom was awesome. She always made things look super cool. _

_Summer poked Ruby on the nose, causing her to fall on her back. _

_Everyone said that Ruby looked like Summer, but she couldn't see it! Her mom was really tall! Almost as tall as her dad who was possibly a giant. She wasn't even as tall as Yang, even when she stood on a chair to try and jump on her sister!_

_Still, sometimes, Ruby could tell what those older people meant. Both their eyes were a pretty silver! It was a shiny silver that seemed to draw in anyone looking into the orbs. Summer leaned forward, poking the little girl on the nose. "Little petal, you shouldn't worry about making mistakes."_

_On some level, Ruby knew this couldn't be real. The scene was one that could only happen in memory. A sweet blissful moment that lasted for as long as Ruby wanted._

_Strange though. Something was around her throat._

_Ruby looked up, but her body felt awkward. She couldn't move at all. She wasn't a little girl in the memory anymore. Waking up, she was clothed in her huntress garb. All big and strong except her arms were restrained by iron shackles. _

_Summer began to fade, disappearing at a rate just fast enough to remind Ruby that she couldn't leap forward to try and save her. The last impression of her mother was the sight of her silver eyes gleaming in the cold. In Summer's place was the white cloak that she left behind for Ruby. Wrapped in the threads like a blanket, Ruby couldn't try to struggle as the cloak wrapped around her neck and yanked and pulled and _

_**Crack!**_

* * *

Ruby jerked awake, flinging blankets everywhere. Zwei, who was curled up at Ruby's feet, tilted his head. But Ruby couldn't breath. She couldn't breathe. Her hands went to her neck, but her cloak was lying on the desk, too far too reach away. Too far to grab and hold and make sure it was real. No way to check to see if her cloak was gone. Vanished completely in the wind. The iron chains around her arms seemed as real as they were in her nightmare. No, it couldn't be a nightmare because it was real.

She couldn't move. She couldn't move! Her semblance must be backfiring because no matter how much Ruby wished to fade into a storm of roses, she couldn't budge. Ruby couldn't even force a scream to her lips. The words were caught in her throat, trapping her in place.

All Ruby Rose could do was fade, like a certain huntress in her dreams. All Ruby could do was disappear and never come back. Yang would never know what happened. Her dad would lose someone else. All this because Ruby Rose-

Could!

Not!

Move!

"Yip."

Ruby blinked.

Her cloak was right next to her, carefully clutched in Zwei's mouth. The corgi strained from the exertion of dragging the cloak across the room, but drag it he did. Straight to Ruby who found herself free again. Free to snatch the cloak out of Zwei's slobbery mouth. Ruby swung the cloak right around her neck just like it should be. Safe and sound. Zwei curled into Ruby's lap, but even he couldn't dry away the stream of tears Ruby felt pouring down her cheeks.

So yeah. Ruby didn't get much more sleep, but to be fair, she wasn't the only one that night.

* * *

Evil never sleeps.

At least, that was how that phrase went. Cinder thought rather poorly of the idea. Of course, she could work long nights. She remembered weeks of sleepless nights slumped over a map of her future conquests. Cinder still felt her eyelids close on and off whenever she thought of the days where she'd be too busy with her plan to consider sleep. The thing was. Evil did sleep. Evil liked sleep. The fact that Cinder wasn't enjoying her sleep right now made her reaction to failure all the worse.

"Junior. You had one task to complete. One simple task to complete, and you've decided to call on me at this hour to tell me you failed."

Cinder was not one to make idle threats. That was because all her threats were one-hundred percent warranted. How else are you supposed to build up a reputation in this day and age? Those that would bluster against her would wind up as ash. Fear was always the strongest motivator, which perhaps explained why Junior was cowering behind his bar.

"Look lady. I sent some of my best men to apprehend her, but she got away. It was lucky they ran into her in the first place!"

Junior's bar was a well known information agency. Both daughters of the Web of Spiders worked under the man for a reason. Junior was a man who could get his job done. Which was why Cinder was so disappointed.

"You sent your best men? I do notice you appear to be chronically understaffed. Of course, I could certainly add to that problem." Cinder snapped her fingers, turning her head to her two loyal, competent… alright, somewhat effective, minions.

"Emerald, Mercury. If Junior continues to waste my time, break one of his men. Make the others watch."

"No!' Junior blustered, but her two minions stopped whatever petty fight they were involved in this week and refocused. Good. Cinder prized efficiency. Her two lackeys having a blood feud over who got to use the shower in the morning was just an unnecessary distraction. Unnecessary and utterly pointless as Cinder had first right to the shower.

"Cinder, I deal in information not high stakes kidnapping."

Cinder returned her attention to Junior and his desperate attempt to regain control of the situation. Too bad for the man that it was already far out of reach.

"Then tell me where to get better men. If your thugs are now behind bars, who else could pull off this job? Especially, as I begin to fear, now that the Schnee knows that someone is after her."

To make her point, Cinder left her hand on the bar counter, curling her fingernails deep into the countertop. Her fingers sunk in despite the metal. It was a more subtle threat, but in Cinder's opinion, a more effective one. Of course, she also needed to teach him respect.

Cinder lunged forward and grabbed Junior by the throat, her nails piercing into his skin. Just enough that Junior's eyes went wide in shock and stinging pain.

"I need names. I know the two real professionals are out of the city, but I doubt a man like you has so few options."

"I…"

Junior's response came out ragged, probably because Cinder was cutting his airflow. Perhaps it would be an odd sight, someone as beautiful as Cinder harming the bigger man, but Cinder was no ordinary thug.

At that moment, Cinder activated her semblance.

Her hands began to steam as she reminded Junior exactly why pissing her off was such a bad idea. Cinder leaned forward, breathing into the man's ear, sultry and dangerous in equal measures.. "Be a dear and give me names."

"T-torchwick. Roman Torchwick!"

Hmm. The answer was just good enough. Cinder let the information broker go. Junior fell to the ground, rubbing his throat. The remaining men in his club shifted on their heels, still too nervous to intervene against the gorgeous woman who threatened their club. Nay, their entire world for Cinder was truly such a threat.

"I assume you can get me in contact with the thief, or else I shall be displeased…"

Junior immediately went spilling dates and times that would work, facts that Cinder placed into the back of her mind. When finished, Cinder snapped her fingers, calling both her minions to her sides like the good dogs they were. They knew better than to try to argue.

"Roman Torchwick. I didn't intend to involve him at this point, but circumstances change. Emerald, Mercury, let's go pay a visit to the gentleman thief, shall we?"

Roman Torchwick would prove a valuable asset, one that may even cause her to make a move sooner than expected. And when she was done? Well, the world wouldn't know how close it was to Ashes. How close it was to it's fall…

"Fall. I'll have to remember that for later." Cinder chuckled to herself as she strode into the night ignoring the side-glances her minions sent to each other. They should well know by now that Cinder liked monologues. And sleep.

But alas, it seemed evil had no time for it.


	4. Wilting Rose

**Chapter 4- Wilting Rose**

Yang groaned into the coach as the alarm signaled a brand-new day of problems. Yang Xiao Long was many things. Gorgeous was one of them. After all, she was a knockout beauty both in the dating scene and the whole champion fighter sense. Her blackbelts in various martial arts spoke to that. Yang was gorgeous, tough and absolutely dead worried.

Her dad wasn't back yet. Was Taiyang busy with classes? He didn't send a text that morning, but seeing as he was technologically impaired, that could mean anything. Now this wouldn't be too big of a concern if not for the fact that he never came home last night. She spent the entire night waiting for him before waking up on the couch.

Yang didn't like it.

Something didn't seem right with Dad's absence. It brought back memories that Yang would rather let die. Like the time Summer went on that business trip and never came back. A haunting reminder that the world wasn't safe for anyone. It made the back of her neck itch, and that wasn't even Yang's biggest concern that morning.

"Hey Rubes?"

Yang dusted off her jacket, swinging it onto her back as she rose from the couch. Their house was uncharacteristically quiet, but she did keep comparing it to their home in Patch. Both sisters were still unused to their new home in Vale, but today seemed different. Yang couldn't see Ruby anywhere on the ground floor.

That bad feeling didn't go down in Yang's gut, but Ruby could just be sleeping in. Yang glanced up at the stairs to the bedrooms in the little home. It would be easy to pop in and wake her sister up. Reassure her sister that Yang would be there to help against the bullies that Dr. Oobleck talked about. Yang could already guess who some of them were. Perhaps she should pay a little visit-

"BZZZZZZZZT"

Yang jerked her head away from the stairs as a sound came roaring from the garage. An impressive feat considering their garage was mostly soundproof. The clang of metal sounded like the roar of a dust-powered tool striking metal.

"Ruby?"

No answer. That feeling in Yang's gut got a little worse, but she still picked her way into the doorway to the garage. Step by step, she crept forward. Did thieves bother with break-ins anymore? No, how much money could you make from taking used power tools and scrap metal? Yang slipped her right hand into the ready stance for a haymaker before she silently opened the door.

The garage's shadows danced when the light from the kitchen poured in, mixing with the only light turned on in the garage, the little lamp from Ruby's workshop. Speaking of which, Ruby's workshop looked completely turned on its head. The curtain that separated the tool space from Yang's stood open and standing right next to Taiyang's red car posed a woman in a long cloak.

"Mom?"

Yang covered her mouth with her hand before that sound could echo. Because the red cloak couldn't be who she thought it was. Summer preferred white cloaks anyway which was weird considering she was a lawyer, but who was Yang to judge? In the grim light of their garage though, Yang couldn't help but see the ghost that haunted her families' waking memories. The imposing scythe in Ruby's hands didn't help much either.

"Right Crescent Rose. We better hide you before Yang or Dad wakes up." For a moment, Yang was thrown off by that line until she realized that her sister was whispering to her scythe like it was alive.

Wait, did Ruby still think the scythe was her little secret? You couldn't expect a garage to be a great hiding place with a sister like Yang around. She figured out Ruby's secret project months ago! Ruby probably thought she was being sneaky, but the poor girl didn't have a subtle bone in her body. After all, she decided the easiest thing to make in shop class was a sniper-scythe combination. What were the soldiers at the Atlesian Wall supposed to do with that?

Ruby couldn't keep a secret to save her life which was why Yang could tell that her sister hadn't slept. Ruby's eyes were baggy, and she slouched just the tiniest bit. More telling, however, was the way that it took a few dull seconds for Ruby to realize that Yang was at the doorway.

"Yang? What are you… Ummm Look! I found this scythe in the basement!" Ruby tried hiding the scythe behind her back, but the so-called Crescent Rose was a piece of metal longer than she was tall. Talk about an inconvenient weapon. Then again, Yang still had her drawings of Ember Celica on the wall, so who was she to judge? Shop class was just that fun.

Ruby shifted on her feet, bobbing her head back and forth in the silence. It eventually occurred to Yang that she needed to break it, and she knew the easiest way to do so.

"We don't have a basement." Then Yang curled her lips into a faux smile. "No need to edge me out of the house. I'm already on a razor's edge, and I don't like the cut of your…. scythe."

Hardly her best work, but Ruby still blinked. Long and slow. "Get out."

Instead of being driven away by the terrifying sight of her younger sister crossing her arms with a scythe in hand, Yang leaned on the doorway. "Have you eaten yet Rubes?"

"Yes… I ate a… breakfast thing." Ruby cunningly lied. Yang could tell because her hands were shaking which was something always more noticeable when one is carrying a large weapon.

"I'll make waffles."

Geez. Ruby's face lit up like a birthday candle. If Crescent Rose wasn't her pride and joy, she probably would have dropped it where she stood. As it was, Ruby went to stow her scythe in her workshop while leaving Yang with more questions than answers. Why did Ruby wake up early to tinker with her project?

Ruby sometimes had moments where she had a good idea and couldn't sleep until she worked that idea out, but here's the thing. Ruby seemed so much... slower than usual. Was that the right term of phrase? On good days, she'd be popping in and out of places like she could teleport. Now she barely swayed in the wind.

Something was wrong.

For the next few minutes, Yang kept herself busy with measuring cups filled with pre-prepared batter and bringing out their old waffle iron, but the normally soothing process only reminded Yang of the fact that Ruby was still nowhere in sight. She never came out of the garage, and the house fell into the silence of sizzling batter.

"I'm adding chocolate to the waffles!"

Ruby didn't come running into the kitchen with the hope of snagging some chocolate from their supply. Even after the timer went off and Yang started decorating the waffles with chocolate chip eyes and funny faces, Ruby was a no-show. Yang carefully set down Ruby's plate on the table and looked out towards the garage, but the empty room didn't help matters

"Bark." From underfoot, good ole Zwei started nudging her legs with his head. His ears were flicking up and down in an almost hypnotic pattern. Yang caught herself staring for a few seconds.

"I'll feed you in a minute Zwei."

Only Zwei didn't stop. In fact, it almost seemed like he was trying to tell her something. Zwei wrinkled his cute little nose and started moving up the staircase. At the top of the stairs, he paused to look down at Yang.

"Bark."

Scratch the almost. Zwei was trying to tell her something.

"Alright Zwei."

The bad feeling in Yang's gut didn't fade as she climbed up the stairs after her dog. Zwei started wagging his tail and moved into Ruby's door, but he made no move to follow Yang in as she irreverently yanked the door open.

Ruby's room, to put it bluntly, was a bit of a mess. Her bedsheets were scattered around the house with various sketch pads and notepads mixed in with the blanketed mess. On the notepads were cheery illustrations of scythes bisecting grim and other cheeky drawings of the like. On the bed in the center of the room, a lump of pillows sat in a vaguely human shape.

"Ruby, you know we have class in a little bit."

The blob in the center of the room turned in place. Ruby was still awake, but her breath was uneven and when Yang went to put a hand on her shoulder, she burrowed herself further into the pillows. Well, if Ruby wasn't feeling that well, Yang wasn't one to nitpick. "I'll tell Glynda that you're sick."

"No."

Ruby sat up from the pillows. Her hair was a mess, and her cloak got tangled up within the sheets as she rose up.

"You look terrible." Yang teased.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at Yang before mumbling, "I have a project at school. I need some materials for Crescent… I mean my class."

Ruby swayed in place, but her eyes seemed full to the brim with equal determination and exhaustion. Just what could be bothering her so much? Was it something going on with Beacon, or did she have something to prove? Yang could be clever when she wanted to, but Ruby was one smart cookie. Tons of mathematical skills matched with a relentless personality. Even if the punks in her classes were going to get their legs busted when Yang caught up to them, it didn't stop Ruby from going to class every day. It didn't seem too out of character for her to stubbornly insist on being well.

"Are you sure? I can totally forge Dad's signature if you need a note."

"Yang!" Ruby shook her head, but Yang's levity forced a little smile.

"Go downstairs and eat your waffles."

Ruby's dash down the stairs might have tricked someone else, but not Yang. Ruby barely smiled, and as she crossed over the threshold, she dragged her foot across the doorstep. Ruby seemed just a tad too subdued. Was she hungover? No, she couldn't be. She hated alcohol thanks to Uncle Qrow, and there was no way that Ruby 'antisocial' Rose willingly went to a party, much less the several parties she claimed she went to yesterday.

Yang didn't like it. Something was bothering Ruby. Nightmares maybe? The best Yang could do was try and cheer her sister up. Oh, and break some bones. Nora would probably help. She'd been meaning to introduce Ruby to the gang anyway since she wasn't doing so well in the friend department.

_Ring! Ring! Ring!_

Yang grabbed her scroll, but her finger hovered over the screen. Yang used separate ringtones for each of her friends. Ren had a calming piano, and Nora had the opposite of a calming ringtone. Coco, the great lady that she was, had a saucy saxophone riff. No one else really had Yang's number, so who could be calling? Last night, Taiyang never came home or even called. Did he lose his phone and borrowed someone else's? She didn't think it likely, but Yang answered the phone anyway.

The caller on the other end was a young woman with a frustratingly familiar voice, but Yang couldn't place it.

"_Oh my gosh Fall. If you want to find more about Branwen, ask Junior. Don't go sending minions to harass us. It's the third time this week, and we're still trying to pick up after the last time your people broke the place."_

Branwen? Like Uncle Qrow? No like… Raven? Before Yang could think to ask anything else, the call cut out leaving Yang standing in the cluttered room.

Did Junior find something new? The information broker that ran the bar near the Torchlight Warehouses might know something. Sure, it was a shady area ever since that Torchwick guy started haunting the place, (Probably because of the name). Yang used to go hang out there before she… well some things were best left to the imagination.

Anyway, Yang had bigger fish to fry. Why did this Fall ask about a Branwen? It seemed a little too much of a coincidence that Yang was being called instead of them. Was it a mistake on someone's end? Did Junior catch wind onto some information about Raven? Of course, this Fall could be asking about Uncle Qrow, but that also had some rather worrying implications.

Maybe Yang shouldn't go to school today. Her grades could take it.

"Rubes, an old friend is coming to town, so I'm skipping class to hang out. Tell Glynda I'm sick or something." Yang called out as she climbed down the steps. At the table, her sister was shoving her waffle down her throat. Right next to her, Zwei was doing the same with his own food.

"Again? Didn't you meet up with Neon just yesterday?" It took Ruby a few seconds to respond from down the steps. Her voice still sounded a bit subdued, but at the very least, there was a bit of pep back in it.

"I'm meeting someone else! She's... a pen pal!" Yang made up on the spot. Ruby shrugged her shoulders and she didn't go back to eating. She placed her fork down at the table with an almost reverent touch.

"Yang. Can you drive me to school today?"

Yang blinked. Normally Ruby made her way to class by herself. But Ruby's pleading eyes quickly override any hesitation Yang might have had about it.

"Sure. Come on, let's go."

Yang pursed her lips together

On the outside, Yang might seem a little one-dimensional. Party girl and all that. It was a good persona to fall upon, but persona was the key word. Being a party girl meant she had the excuse to dress up and ply bartenders for information.

Yang's search began and ended with one woman. Raven Branwen, aka, Summer's old business partner in the law business. Yang's own mother, but that wasn't important. What did matter was the fact that Raven was the last person to see Summer alive. Yang might pun and joke around and go to parties, but she had a reason for what she did.

Ruby put on her helmet, fumbling with the straps for a second before Yang plucked it from her hands.

"Yang!"

Ruby squirmed away, but Yang only latched the helmet onto her sister's little head. "I can do that myself!"

"I know." What Yang did wasn't just for her own curiosity. It was also for her sister's stake too. She'd stay up late to chase the worries away. She'd go to any length if needed. Yang would find Raven and find out what happened to Summer. And if there was a reason why Summer disappeared? Well, Yang took up fighting for a reason. Every lie. Every late night crawling the city. This was Yang's drive. Her purpose.

Whatever the world might throw her way, it didn't change one basic fact. Everything she did was for her family.

Ok, so maybe not everything.

"I'm still curious about that date-friend you've been hanging out with, Rubes."

"Yang!"

Yang's laughter echoed across the streets because at that moment, everything was right in the world again, and Yang would do anything to keep it that way.

* * *

Ruby Rose was psyched!

No, really! She was turning over a whole new leaf. Starting the day fresh. History class was the perfect way to become serious. It was her first class on Tuesday, last class on Mondays, and all around a place where she'd normally spend napping. But today, no sir. Ruby Rose was ready. She was going to be the bestest student ever!

"Hello class! Today we'll be talking about the Grim Reaper, and the curious way that her narrative has shifted in contemporary society!" Dr. Oobleck began the class. His eyes caught Ruby's for the briefest of moments and he winked.

Ruby's smile greeted him. The Reaper was the first huntress! Sure, some people liked to argue about her existence, but the records existed! She was real, and they were studying her!

Today would be a brand-new day. Ruby might feel like a rock on the inside, but there was nothing a positive attitude couldn't-

_Splat_.

Something wet and slimy struck the back of Ruby's head. Her classmates around her started to laugh at Ruby as a certain Cardin Winchester cheekily waved the straw in his hands at Ruby.

Ruby's breath stilled. Everyone's eyes were on her, but Ruby couldn't but take a detached look at the classroom. Cardin and his cronies kept laughing at her. Dr. Oobleck didn't notice the trouble and blabbered on about secondhand accounts.

"Hello there?"

Oobleck snapped his fingers for silence, but the snickering in the background persisted. The door to the classroom swung open anyway, and a skinny boy with blond hair and a Pumpkin Pete Hoodie stuck his head in the door.

"Is this door 1337 or door 7331? The classrooms in the school don't make sense."

His words seemed to be meant more for himself, but in the silence, they echoed across the classroom like bullets. The eyes in the classroom took in his shaking hands and mop of hair covering his eyes, and it must have been a match in heaven for all of them. Cardin aimed his straw away from Ruby, who could only sigh in relief.

Stupid Ruby. She should really try standing up for herself one of these days, but that wasn't what a true huntress would do…

Dr. Oobleck clutched the bride of his nose with his hand. "I'm glad you finally found the classroom. Why don't you sit down? Mr. Arc will be transferring from my other class due to scheduling issues."

Blondie shot an awkward glance across against the classroom before his eyes on Cardin. Ruby saw him swallow before moving away from Cardin. It just so happened that he chose the chair behind Ruby.

"Ummm. Hi there! My name is-"

_Splat. _

Cardin fired another spitball, but for once, she wasn't the target. Blondie's sentence got cut off with a shriek. By this point, even the normally neutral students began to laugh at him.

"Quiet down. Now, now! We've got work to do."

"So... guess we're desk buddies now." The blond-haired boy whispered, but Ruby said nothing. For once, she wasn't being the one harassed in class, and in truth, Ruby didn't know how she felt about that.

The blond-haired boy didn't seem to mind her silence because at that moment, Dr. Oobleck called on him for a question.

Ruby yawned, but to sleep meant going back to dreaming, and to dream was to stray into the nightmare that chained her to her seat.

Also Dr. Oobleck would throw a tennis ball at her or something. So Ruby remained awake. No more nightmares for her! It was just a school day. She could take one measly school day!

Ruby's eyes drifted shut...

* * *

As Weiss Schnee walked into the noble halls of her new school, her eyes darted to each decorated classroom and each passing student. The reputation of Beacon Academy stood out among its peers in the kingdoms. The classes spanned from the intro level courses found at any riff-raff school to collegiate level programs with international recognition. Each class was taught by a professor whose accreditations were world renowned.

Beacon was a school with history. A school with a pedigree. For Weiss' first impression though, she honestly hadn't expected Beacon to be so…

Well, certainly not this.

"Look Renny! It's that new girl! She's in our class, right? I bet she's super smart of something to transfer in like that. Does she speak other languages? Wait, do you think she can speak sloth?"

"Nora."

At the esteemed Professor Ozpin's request, Weiss was to take a tour of the facilities available for transferring students like herself. Weiss regretted missing the opportunity to go to history class with the famed historian Dr. Oobleck, but she did welcome the chance to explore her new school. She even managed to get the tour being offered by the famous Pyrrha Nikos. The TV celebrity was unsurprisingly the class president of their year at Beacon and took care of prospecting students.

At least, Weiss should have gotten the full tour from the celebrity. Unfortunately, the girl fell sick with the common cold just that morning. A pity. Weiss would have loved the chance to make a valuable connection, but that would have to wait for another day. Instead of Pyrrha, Weiss was stuck with two other classmates, Ren and Nora.

"And here is where one of Cardin's goons tried to shove Ren into a locker, so I hit him with the hammer I snuck out of shop class."

Yes. Her introduction to Beacon was certainly… unique.

Still, Weiss couldn't help being excited. On the outside she was poised and perfect, but internally she shivered with anticipation. Here was the freedom that she wanted so dearly.

Forget Atlesian pride. Weiss finally made it to Beacon. She finally made it to her freedom.

Freedom that came at her father's request. That thought soured Weiss' mood for a bit. Weiss needed to figure out what her father was thinking, not to mention the problem with the mysterious gang that accosted her and the blasted Rose Girl. Logically speaking, she had no room to get excited over silly things like classrooms and new friends.

"You've been quiet."

Weiss blinked. Ren's words, few as they were, kept to translating Nora's… eccentric manner of speaking. A personal comment like that last one struck a much heftier blow.

"It's a lot to think about." Weiss lied, though if you went by technicalities, it wasn't exactly a lie.

Ren pursed his lips. "If you have trouble adjusting, there are people you can talk to. Nora. Myself. Pyrrha."

"And here is where Professor Goodwitch teaches us potions!" Nora interrupted, throwing her arms out to the double doors to the dust laboratory. None of the students in the hallways seemed bothered by the entrance. Presumably, this was a regular occasion for the class.

"Dust studies." Ren translated for Weiss.

"And I got you here just in time for class! Talk about good tour guiding, am I right?"

Weiss couldn't help herself. The briefest of smiles crossed her face before settling into a neutral and respectful expression. Still, Ren caught the last glimpse of the smile and nodded to her.

"Thank you." Weiss even meant it.

No more words were needed as Ren and Nora made their way back to Ozpin's office. Weiss turned her attention to the classroom and future ahead of her. Through the double doors to the dust lab, an older woman with a tightly fitted school uniform called out to her.

"Mrs. Schnee was it?" The famed Professor Goodwitch pushed her glasses up. "As you are new, I would normally hesitate to plunge you directly into the lab. However, we've been working with dust crystals for the past few days. Have you had any experience with lab work?

Simple dust crystals? Well, Weiss certainly knew her way around those. "I will perform as my station demands.

"Good. I see that Miss Xiao Long isn't in class today which means that we'll assign you to her usual partner. She's at the table in the back."

Goodwitch looked like she wanted to say something more, but a beaker at a nearby desk started to fizz with bubbles as the dust crystal inside the beaker began to dissolve. The student in charge of the mess, a blond-haired boy, frantically tried to stop the mess as a boy behind him called out, "Oh Jauny! Aren't you supposed to mix those chemicals together last?"

Regrettably, Weiss recognized Cardin Winchester. They once shared a class in Atlas. His father was a wealthy man, so Weiss was forced to tolerate his existence. At least Weiss wasn't assigned to be that boy's partner. Whoever she was working with sat in the back of the class.

As she picked her way past the lab desks, Weiss rehearsed her opening speech in her mind. This had the potential to become an important partnership in the future, so her first impression needed to be perfect.

"I've been told we will be partners. I'm more than experienced with dust, so I expect that our mutual partnership should prove beneficial…" Weiss trailed off. The girl who was supposed to be her partner was slumped on the desk with a red hood pulled over her head.

"Are you asleep? How uncouth, How…?"

"Five more minutes, please."

Weiss slowed, the words on her lips freezing with shock. Halfway through the tirade, the girl at the desk had woken up and raised her head. None other than the Rose Girl looked into Weiss' eyes, blinked at Weiss, and then went back to sleep.

To this day, Weiss denied that she screamed in shock, but for some reason, no one believed her.

"You-YOU!"

* * *

**Omake: **

"Girls, what did I tell you about messing with client's calls?" Junior didn't usually tear down his lieutenants. For one, they were technically on loan. The Malachite sisters were powerful and dangerous, and generally, Junior knew how to deal with those types. It involved a healthy amount of self-preservation instinct.

Generally. The situation with Fall was a once in a lifetime nightmare.

Melanie groaned. "But this girl, she's like, really annoying."

"Yeah! She beat up the entire bar. Like, her boss already did that. Why send two people to do the same job?"

"You called her?"

"Like, we weren't going to bother with it, but she might come back later. Our call was like, totally warranted."

And this was why those two worked with Junior. Because they had no sense of subtlety. Where did they even get the blond one's number in the first place?

Oh well. What Cinder didn't know, couldn't hurt her. Or hurt Junior. Hopefully.

Junior sighed and poured himself a drink. He had a feeling he'd be needing more than one in the days ahead.


	5. Improper Lab Protocol

**Chapter 5- Improper Lab Protocol**

Sometimes Cinder wondered what life was like for the people who weren't as intelligent as she was.

"Junior, I don't see why this information couldn't be passed over a secure channel. It's morning, and I haven't slept. It's irksome. Consider myself irked."

Junior opened his mouth, perhaps to tell Cinder where exactly to shove it, but Cinder flicked a finger up and wriggled it back and forth. The slightest steam rose up from her fingertips to add insult to injury. Her threat couldn't be clearer; Junior slumped back in his chair.

"Roman changes up his location every few days. Frankly, you're lucky I can find him in the first place."

Cinder leaned in closer. "Luck has nothing to do with it Hei Xiong. For a man who knows everything, you sure seem to enjoy holding onto what I need."

"It's Torchlight hotel, alright?" Junior spit out.

Cinder didn't let anything flash across her face, but her two minions weren't as subtle.

"Wait, do you mean the Torchlight Hotel? As in solid gold napkins and armed security guards around the clock?" Emerald's skepticism was at least warranted. Roman was an internationally wanted criminal. Who in their right mind would hide out at a hotel that shared their name?

Cinder bit her lip. Roman was certainly audacious, not to mention arrogant. She'd have to burn that out of him when she got a hold of the man.

"Well, at least he has taste." Mercury leaned in and whispered something to Emerald. Cinder didn't catch the exact words, but since Emerald brought her heel down on his leg, she could put things together. Mercury's two modes were fighting or flirting. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was doing here.

"You better watch yourself." Emerald flashed her weapon at Mercury who only jeopardized fifteen of Cinder's plans when he uncovered his own robotic legs. It wasn't like they were fighting in front of an information dealer or anything.

"Oh, don't mind me. Continue bickering. I'm fine with waiting for the toddlers to finish." Cinder drawled. Both her minions immediately dropped their weapons with pleas for forgiveness on their lips. If Cinder was anyone else, her reputation might have dropped from that little scene. As it was, it seemed like there were bigger problems to worry about. Outside the bar came the sound of glass shattering.

The door to the club flew open. One of Junior's remaining men waved his arms around. "She's back! The demon is back!"

Cinder watched Junior's face go a lovey shade of purple. Remarkable. Even she didn't get that kind of reaction from the man, and Cinder was… well Cinder.

The goons in the lobby all pulled out their weaponry. The bar was closed, and with the goon at the door running in to warn Junior, there was no one to stop the stranger from marching in.

"Oh, Junior! Did someone come calling me?"

At first glance, the girl strolling into the bar seemed innocuous at best. Sure, the bright yellow hair and biker's jacket stood out in the ill-lit bar, but funny hair colors were a dime a dozen in Vale. Chemicals in the water or something like that.

Rarer were the bright red eyes that characterized a particular genetic order. Put that fact together with the way her hair was styled, and a certain picture began to emerge. The woman resembled a lawyer that Cinder had been looking for. Aside from the blond hair, she looked like a younger version of the elusive Raven Branwen.

"Well isn't this interesting?" Cinder whispered to herself as interior monologues weren't quite as entertaining as displaying one's brilliance. It hurt. Being as smart as she was with nobody to praise her or even keep up.

In front of her, Junior's face was getting paler by the second. The tension in the bar was so thick with fear that Cinder could practically cut it. It persisted even after Junior tried to regain control of the situation.

"Get out! I said you couldn't come back here!"

"But Junior, your people were the ones who called me here, and I would love a strawberry sunrise. Oh, with a little umbrella on the top!"

As she walked past one of the goons, she lunged forward. Instead of brandishing the gun like the armed criminal he was, the goon shrank back. Grossly incompetent. If Cinder needed manpower at a later date, she certainly would never come back here.

The woman that had the armed mafia running scared pulled up a seat right next to Cinder. There was an entire empty bar, but she sat right next to her.

Cinder could respect that sort of power move.

"I'm going to have to borrow your bartender for a minute lady. Don't worry, I'll bring him back in one piece."

"Get out, Xiao-Long!"

"Aw, but aren't we on first name terms Junior?" She winked at the flustered criminal.

"Yang."

Junior's eyes flashed towards Cinder, but if he expected her to intervene, he was truly as useless as this encounter was showcasing. Cinder smiled a serpent's grin at the informant. As Yang dragged Junior away, Cinder caught the first part of a whispered inquiry.

"I hear you've been looking for a Branwen, right? Care to elaborate?" The woman named Yang cracked her knuckles together. It didn't go beneath Cinder's notice that she moved with the tread of a skilled fighter, nor did she fail to miss the name drop.

Interesting. Very interesting. Perhaps Junior's ship wasn't as rat-proof as he insisted.

Yang dragged Junior to one of the booths at the end of the bar. While Cinder could read her intention as easily as she could a book, her words were too quiet to overhear. Junior kept his words quiet too, but every now and then, he'd glance Cinder's way. When he caught Cinder's eye, he'd jerk his head away. The picture it painted told everything Cinder needed to know.

He knew! Or at least, he suspected about a rat chewing through his ship, and now, he was desperately trying to plug the leak before it got too far. Perhaps Cinder coming here was a stroke of fortune. For her, of course. For Junior, it was one more log for the fire.

Cinder moved closer, acting like someone simply waiting for another drink than a dangerous eavesdropper. Her minions, for once acting in good sense, resumed their bickering with a little more flair than they usually practiced. A solid enough cover.

Destiny must have been with Cinder because just as she moved into a good enough spot to listen in, the interrogation began full force.

"Hurk!" Junior managed to choke out when Yang grabbed him by the throat. Amateur move, really. Now he couldn't speak to answer the question.

"I want names. Raven or my Uncle? It's a simple question."

Leading with the hard questions, huh? Solid move. Kept the intensity up while the threat was imminent. If Cinder had known today would have been so entertaining, she wouldn't have complained about getting up so early.

Yang let go of the informant's throat. Junior took another glance towards Cinder. Was he worried about giving too much away? A bit too late for that, but Cinder appreciated the sentiment. Now, the question became how much to let the pig squeal.

Something was coiling in her head. Maybe it was the start of a plan. Maybe it was a game to play in the meantime. For now, Cinder just nodded her head.

Junior didn't acknowledge her movement, but he did start spilling out secrets. "Your uncle is fine. Worse thing he did was blow a red-light and got me to fix it. The client was asking for Raven."

_Slam!_

Yang crashed her hand against the table which caused Junior to flinch away. "You said you knew nothing about her!"

"I don't know anything, alright! Not about her. Not about her old partner. I'm just keeping a lookout for Branwen!"

"Look buddy. All I'm asking is to get the first crack at her."

"Yang, there's a lot going on here that you don't know."

Junior cast another glance at Cinder, and oh, didn't that make her seethe with anger? Was she promoted to babysitter today? Junior wasn't subtle, but at the very least, this Yang Xiao-Long focused more on the words than where Junior was looking.

He still needed to be disciplined, but it wasn't a total loss.

"Look, Junior. Level with me for a bit. I don't care who Raven pissed off. Not my problem. But won't you do me this favor? You know. Cuz we are such good friends?"

Junior's squealing was interrupted when Yang twisted his elbow into a shape that human arms weren't meant to bend. Nice Move. Showed that she had control of the situation. A bit too blunt for Cinder's taste, but it wasn't like anyone else could heat up a situation quite like she could. Yang's intimidation tactic paid off because even after she released Junior, his attention was all on her.

"Make sure that I have first crack at them Junior. I don't care what happens afterwards, but I can't ask questions if it turns out the mob is after her. Got it?"

"Yang, you realize you're speaking to me." His words were low and dangerous, but all they served was to spur the woman on.

"What? You mean my old friend is a part of some shady group? You should have told me!"

Absolutely riveting. Cinder was learning more in a short conversation than she had during hours of investigative work. Certainly, this was worth missing her morning shower and coffee.

So, the little fledgling was looking for the big, bad bird? Somehow, Cinder doubted it was to ask some legal questions. It was useful information. The question was how best to utilize it. Finding Raven Branwen was a long-term goal, and with so much to do in the meantime, it wasn't something to pursue immediately.

Still, Cinder wasn't one to let opportunities slip past her. She'd think of something.

The interrogation finally began to slow down as demonstrated by the way that Yang leaned back in her chair. Her tone shifted to a cheerier cadence. "Alright Junior. Now that's out of the way, why don't we set back? Let's both get drinks. On me, ok?"

"It's my bar. I'm not paying for drinks."

"So it's on the house? You really do know how to treat a girl." Junior scowled at the comment. But he waved one of his minions forward. For a man that was just put through the wringer, he looked remarkably at ease now.

Perhaps there was something to Yang's tactics here. Not bad at all. Not what Cinder would use, but it got the job done.

Sometime during the pair's grandstanding, Emerald closed the gap between her seat at the bar counter and Cinder's booth. With the slightest tilt of her head, she gestured towards the leak. "Should I intervene?"

Always so quick to please. So loyal. Cinder just smiled. Almost daintily, she held up her drink.

"There's no need. I always loved dinner and a show."

Cinder sipped her tea. Though it looked like it was all over, Cinder knew better. You can learn a lot from a person under stress, but only the comfortable will let things slip. The minion came to the table with a platter, and instead of scaring them away, Yang winked. She settled into her seat, and that was when the interrogation went from curious to truly interesting…

* * *

Halfway across the city, Ruby was having a bit of a bad time. Now, she hadn't expected much from the rest of the school day. A headache had been building in her temple for hours. In retrospective, it would have been better if she stayed home. She could have gotten in some real sleep instead of getting in a few winks between periods.

"I've been told we will be partners. I'm more than experienced with dust, so I expect that our mutual partnership should prove beneficial…"

With Yang off with her pen-pal, that meant that Ruby was forced to go through Dust Studies by herself. Sure, the class was cool and all. Ruby learned how to jury-rig an explosive which was super awesome! Things just slowed down when she could barely keep her eyes open. Professor Goodwitch was going to catch her sleeping on the job, but Ruby was too tired to care.

"Are you asleep? How uncouth! How…?"

Someone kept babbling in the background, and Ruby couldn't pull her cloak over her head. The sound washed over her like white noise, ruining any chance for a restful sleep.

"Five more minutes, please."

Ruby raised her head with those words and glanced at the girl in front of her. The stranger looked sorta familiar, with the white hair and scolding tone. The designer clothes rang a bell. The stranger had on a white skirt that looked like it could double as a combat skirt. Maybe if she was more alert, Ruby could have identified the stranger, but at the moment, it was all Ruby could do to sink her head against the cloak that she was using as a blanket. Comfy, right?

"You-YOU!"

Wait. Scolding tone? Lustrous white hair? Designer clothes?

Ruby jolted awake. Standing in front of her was the princess that Ruby had saved before. Now that she wasn't thrown out of sorts by an attempted mugging, Ruby could see the way her shining white hair was meticulously brushed. Up close like this gave Ruby a first-hand look at the death glare being leveled at her direction.

"Why are you here? It's a set-up! It must be! I'm not falling for it!"

"Oh wow. You're the pretty lady!" Ruby said before her mind caught up to her mouth. This was the lady. The lady she saved as a superhero. The lady standing in front of Ruby in her school uniform. Well that could be a problem.

Sure, Ruby wore a mask as her vigilante persona, but this was the first time that her brilliant disguise would be tested. If she didn't do damage control fast, her secret identity would be toast. Worse, Ruby could tell that the girl possibly, maybe, might even have recognized her.

She needed an alibi! She needed to think of a cover story before things came crashing down.

"Hello person I've definitely never met before!"

Nailed it. Kinda. Sorta. Alright, Ruby was panicking now just like the girl in front of her!

"Miss Schnee? Is something the matter?"

By this point, the entire class turned their eyes to the pair in their panic. Ruby, who had a response locked away in her head, opened her mouth. And kept it open. Everyone was staring. Everyone was looking at her and look! There was stupid Cardin and the rest of his merry gang. Aside from the poor blond-haired kid, the entire classroom of sharks turned towards the blood in the water.

Luckily, she wasn't the only one caught in their crosshairs.

"Nothing is wrong. Absolutely nothing! I-I saw a spider!"

Elegant and refined, in the face of trouble, the stranger named Miss Schnee extended a finger to the desk. There was nothing there of course, but Ruby saw her opportunity and pounced on it.

"There was a spider, and it had eight legs that were crawling all over, and I tried to get rid of it, but I must have missed because it's gone now, and it's going to crawl in the dust and mutate..."

By this point, everyone else in the class started chuckling at the two, and didn't that send Ruby's heart racing? Cardin met her eyes and mimed a spider crawling across his open hand, albeit a spider with only five legs. Bad impressions aside, it was impossible to mistake the softened screech that he gave, complete with a totally incredulous jump.

That less than flattering impression set off another round of stifled giggles. Save the new kid who was still cleaning up his station, the entire classroom burst into laughter.

Ruby swallowed. Her throat felt dry. She was an ordinary girl with ordinary knees. She was fine! She could take some friendly teasing! It just… hurt. Usually this class was safe. Yang would be right next to her to act as a comfort, but it never was needed here. Ruby thought that she got along with her classmates, but without Yang to glare at them, was this what they thought?

Ruby bit her lip. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't her biggest problem she had to deal with. The girl next to her kept a taught posture, like a bowstring, during the laughter. Was that slow blink a sign that she wasn't fazed by the laughter, or was she just hiding it?

It didn't matter. Professor Goodwitch must have had enough with the disruptions because she marched back to her desk and pulled something dark and coiled from her desk and-

_THWACK!_

"Class, I would suggest you return to your work before I hand out detentions. I trust, Miss. Rose, Miss. Schnee, that there will be no disruptions?"

"Of-of course! I would never-" Miss Schnee began, but her defense trailed off as she looked at Goodwitch in all her disciplinary power. In her hands was a whip that she cracked against the desks. Terrifying right? Rumor was that she was a war veteran from Atlas, and that her whip actually was a modified dust weapon that she invented.

Legend says that Beacon didn't always run so tight a ship. As bad as folk like Cardin got, the stories say that the older students were much worse. All that changed during a certain teacher's first day. Rumor had it that Professor Goodwitch single-handedly brought peace and order to Beacon with just one whip-crack. Did Ruby believe that? Yes, yes she did.

Miss Schnee took a seat. Ruby did her best to look attentive, and not like she'd been napping for most of the class. The engineer in Ruby's heart wanted nothing more than to get a closer look at the weapon, but Ruby's self-preservation instinct wasn't that bad! (She took a look at it on the first day of school. Her semblance was useful for getting in and out of classrooms without being caught).

When Professor Goodwitch turned her attention to the front of the class, Ruby's new partner turned to face Ruby. For a moment, Ruby got lost in those pretty eyes that shone like dust crystals...

"This is your fault."

Wait, what? How could it be her fault? She wasn't the one who called everyone's attention to the back of the room!

Ruby's mouth ran faster than she could think better of it. "Excuse me princess, but I wasn't the one who started it!"

The princess bit slipped out which wasn't ideal when Ruby was trying to draw attention away from her super-cool superhero persona. Her lab partner didn't seem to put it together though, because she was too busy staring daggers into Ruby's soul.

"Don't call me that."

"Well what should I call you!" Ruby crossed her arms, then later, as an afterthought, "Person who I've never met before!"

"You've already mentioned that."

Ruby threw her hand out "Whatever! I still don't know your name!"

Her classmate in white blinked. Long and slow. Ruby's back tingled at the glance that crawled up and down her front. Maybe in another situation, it would have been nice to have her eyes on her. For now, all Ruby could do is hope that her disguise worked.

"Weiss. My name is Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?" Weiss waited for a second after that introduction, gesturing at Ruby like she expected some comment to interrupt.

"Umm, cool?"

"The internationally known singer? The face of the Schnee Charity Ball? Why doesn't this ring any bells?"

Ruby shrugged her shoulders because none of that seemed familiar. But she had a name now, and maybe if Weiss got one in turn, she'd stop making associations between Ruby Rose and the awesome vigilante that saved her.

"My name is Ruby. Ruby Rose. It's nice to meet you."

Ruby held up a hand to Weiss. By this point though, another look crossed over Weiss' face. Her eyes trailed up Ruby's form in a manner that might have been flattering if it wasn't punctuated by a tightening of her fist.

Oh, no. She knew. She knew. How could she know? Sure, Ruby didn't change her voice all that much while in costume, but Ruby's costume was cool! She had a mask! Did she need to do more? Make modifications to her design? Move back to Patch?

The jig was up. It was all over.

"Pray tell, what are you doing here?"

It was… over? Weiss' eyes crawled across Ruby's workspace. Generally, Ruby tried to keep a tidy workspace in labs and engineering. Fire safety and all that. Not today though because today was a capital-B Bad day. The beakers for today's lab experiment were all shoved to the side so that Ruby could rest her head on the makeshift pillow called her cloak.

"This is a lab safety violation! What are you doing here?"

"It's fine. I turned off the hot plate. I just needed to rest my head a minute. I'll turn it on in a minute." Ruby defended herself even though Weiss might be technically correct about the mess being unsafe. Ruby wasn't an idiot. She was… just tired.

"The other students are already leagues ahead! I won't fail because my partner failed to follow basic safety procedures!"

In the background, the classroom settled back into the hazardous mess that was Dust Studies. There was Cardin, gesturing with a beaker of chemicals in his hands which was probably bad form. The blond transfer student was desperately trying to restart his experiment, but his partner was one of Cardin's cronies, so not much progress was being made there.

Every now and again, one of their classmates would glance towards the back. Ruby thought she saw money exchange hands at one point, but that wasn't Ruby's problem here.

No, Ruby's problem was the girl next to her. Did Weiss recognize the charming vigilante? Did she only see the ordinary girl with ordinary knees? Of course, it didn't matter if Weiss figured out Ruby's identity because the way things were going, she was going to end up in a ditch.

"Dunderhead! This is quality dust! You can't treat it like some children's toy!"

"I never started the experiment! I just worked on the calculations yesterday. All I did today was start heating it!"

"Wait, you've already started the reaction?"

"It's fine! It should be inert! I didn't add anything yet."

"Adding a heat source will do that anyway!"

"Not when we're working with ice-dust! That will freeze, won't it?"

Only, Ruby realized that perhaps she shouldn't have said that because now Weiss looked like she was a step away from murder.

"That's not how dust works, you dolt!"

Cardin got up and started to head to the washing station which was only a few feet away from Ruby and Weiss. Perhaps it said too much about Ruby's panic that she didn't realize that he was a few steps away from them. There were bigger problems to handle.

"You're incompetent!"

"I'm trying!"

"Your written ratios are off!"

"Ok, so I messed up! It's still salvageable!"

"Not to the degree that the experiment calls for! You need to start over before the crystals implode!"

"We barely started! I can save it!"

By this point, their arguing had grown in volume. What started as some frantic whispering grew to the point that the other students were looking their way with their usual amount of fiendish glee. As the two argued, someone else made his move. Cardin walked by their station, but instead of going forward to the washing station, he paused right in front of Ruby and Weiss.

"Well, well, well. Look at who we-"

"If you continue speaking to me Cardin, I will stab you." Weiss scowled, and wow, wasn't that sharp tongue impressive when it wasn't directed towards Ruby?

Cardin paled at Weiss' words, but he still looked raring to go for a fight. What was he doing over here anyway? A beaker of chemicals was clutched in his hand, but he couldn't be emptying it in the sink. It was still full.

Cardin gestured towards Weiss with his free hand. Then, he placed his beaker on the desk right next to Ruby's mess before clutching both hands together like he was some sort of saint.

"You know, you can't come in here acting all high and mighty when-

Weiss took the pen in her hand and thrust it into the desk right next to Cardin. "Shut it Winchester. The Rose Girl and I are talking."

Cardin jolted up, backing up a few steps. "You're going to regret this. You too, Rose."

Oh great, now Ruby was back in the firing line. She didn't even say anything this time! At least it was worth seeing the stupefied look on Cardin's face after Weiss' comment.

Cardin went running, empty handed in his villainous machinations. It was the sort of thing that Ruby always wanted to do, but she was held back by the good example she needed to follow. Weiss had no such restrictions.

Too bad that Weiss turned her attention back to Ruby. Her nitpicking was distracting in the worst kind of ways. Even if Ruby didn't have a headache, she'd be hard pressed to get anything done with their experiment with Weiss next to her.

Back on the hotplate, their ice crystals began to emit a clear sort of smoke from the top. While this was a necessary step for the lab to proceed, apparently Ruby's beaker wasn't up to code, and wasn't that such a shame?

"Blah blah I'm a Schnee! The Schnee dust company is not liable for property damages that occur when using the product… Blah, blah, I'm rich! Do this! Do that!"

Alright, so maybe Ruby exaggerated a tad bit. But Weiss was talking in her ear, and it was too fast to comprehend when Ruby was operating on an hour of sleep. The dust crystals were starting their reaction, and Ruby couldn't remember the next step of the lab.

"Blah, blah don't blah blah move it! I'm going to prepare for the next step" Weiss turned around to start collecting some of Ruby's equipment from the scattered mess on the desk.

Move it? Ok. That sounded right. Like when Ruby learned how to make a dust bomb. This was just the same. Ruby grabbed the pair of tongs and carefully picked up the beaker. With her free hand, she tapped on Weiss' shoulder.

"I've got it!"

"What are you doing! I told you not to move it!"

Oh, that wasn't good. Wait, Ruby could still save it! She just needed to get it back to the hot plate! Ruby quickly latched it back to the beaker.

Triumphant, Ruby turned to face Weiss. "I did it!"

"Quick, we need to mix in the counteragent!"

Somehow, the expression on Weiss' face did not fill Ruby with confidence. Oh, that's right. This step was supposed to be critical to the whole experiment. Ruby lunged for the beaker of chemicals on her hazardous desk and poured it all in. The smoke instantly dissipated, and Ruby let out a sigh of relief.

She turned to Weiss with a beaming smile. Weiss took in a breath, but the barest trace of a smile rose on her own lips. "Naturally, the experiment went well with me to guide you."

Hehe. Kind of mocking, but Ruby would take it! Perhaps today was looking up after all. Weiss hadn't called her out yet for vigilantism, so maybe Ruby's crippling social anxiety helped for a change. There was a big difference between the suave superhero and the dundering dolt.

Ruby started cleaning up her work desk, stacking the equipment in neat piles so they could be cleaned. Her desk was kinda messy. It was full of vials and beakers and the fully filled counteragent that Ruby had carefully placed next to yesterday's calculations.

Ruby let it sit in her hand. What, exactly? Why, the fully filled counteragent that Ruby found next to her calculations!

"Weiss. Did Cardin take back his beaker?"

"What are you talking about?"

"He had a beaker in his hand when he first walked up."

That fact simmered between the two for a quick second. Ruby let it mull over her aching head. She had the counteragent in her hand. She had the counteragent in her hand, but she mixed something with the volatile dust crystals-

"Get down you dolt!"

Weiss full-on tackled Ruby, causing both to hit the ground. Ruby blinked as too suddenly, Weiss was right on top of her, and wow, wasn't that kinda awkward? That happened the other day too-

BOOM!

Weiss' face was covered in dust which was weird because it wasn't the kind of dust they were working with. Or maybe Ruby was just a little too dizzy to tell. Objectively they were fine. That blond, new kid had his experiment explode as well, and he was still walking. This was school. Professor Goodwitch wouldn't hand out dangerous substances to students.

Subjectively though, Ruby was dead. The minute their experiment went sideways, the entire class began laughing at the pair. Weiss was still on top of Ruby, and she technically saved her which made Ruby's heart race, but that look on her face reminded Ruby of a match about to light up an oil field.

_THWACK!_

"In all my years of teaching, I have never seen such blatant disregard for lab protocol. Miss Schnee, Miss Rose, I expected better from you! You will be staying to pick up this mess."

Ruby tried not to flinch at the disappointment in her professor's voice, but she still had a better reaction than poor Weiss. Weiss immediately stood up and tried pleading her case to the Professor.

"I tried to save it, Professor Goodwitch, but the conditions of the experiment were less than-"

The class was still laughing as Weiss plead their case, but Ruby felt her eyes drift shut. The whispers felt just as loud as Weiss' words and infinity more hostile. There was definitely a "crater face" thrown in there.

_THWACK!_

"That's enough. All of you. Quit your laughter. You are students of Beacon Academy, not children!" Those words finally reminded the class of who they were dealing with. Even Weiss cut off from her self-defense. The whole of Dust Studies went quiet for a second, breaking only for the school bell which signaled the end of this tragedy. Still, no one dared to move. Not when Professor Goodwitch looked so furious.

After what seemed like an eternity for Ruby, (approximately three seconds), Professor Goodwitch finally lowered her whip.

"I will see the three of you in detention! The rest of you, class dismissed!"

The minute Professor Goodwitch's back was turned, Weiss glared at Ruby. "This is your fault, Rose Girl."

Ruby couldn't even muster up the energy to defend herself. She was just… so tired. All she could do was watch Weiss march off to her next class.

If Yang was here, she'd probably say, 'well that was a thing.' Too bad she wasn't here.

Hey, things could be worse. At the very least, Ruby removed herself from Weiss' suspicions. There was no way that she'd confuse the super-competent superhero with the bumbling dunce named Ruby. Rose Girl wasn't a bad nickname per say. She'd been called worse, and her identity should be safe now.

Yeah, this was still pretty crummy. Even for her standards. Ruby sunk to the ground. It was just so exhausting. Everything was. As hard she tried, things just kept crashing down. Now here she was, lying on the ground at Beacon Academy.

"Hey, ummm. I'm Jaune."

Ruby looked up. There was the blond-haired boy from before. In his hands was a stack of books and crumbled papers, but he set those aside on the table next to them. Then, he stretched his hand out to her.

"It's Ruby."

"That looks pretty rough. Need a hand?"

Ruby looked at the open hand and felt the barest trace of a smile grow on her face. She took a hold of it, pulling herself up. Jaune smiled back, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.

"I saw what happened with Cardin earlier. Before you umm, blew up. Hey, but I blew up too!"

Ruby couldn't help herself. She chuckled. After a moment, he started laughing too.

"Aren't you the one who lost his way to class?"

"I'm just saying, maybe those hallways should be better marked!"

Turns out, Jaune had the same class schedule as she did. And for someone whose day had been pretty rotten before this, Ruby couldn't help herself. She laughed along with Jaune as they made their way to their next class.

Maybe today wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

**Warning: No science was harmed in the making of this chapter. That is because no scientists were consulted in the making of this fic. The Schnee Dust Company does NOT approve of improper lab protocol and takes no responsibilities for injuries caused from the misuse of its projects. Thank you and have a good rest of your day.**


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